Hello anyone who happens to read this message,
I AM DESPERATE!!, but once again, who isn't when you are looking for good hosting space? I need a good place to host my site, and since i am sooooo desperate, I may be willing to pay for it. I'm brand new to this forum, so if anybody, ANYBODY at all could help me, please email me here:puckchewer@cs.com THANK YOU!!!! :(

If you are looking for good hosts, browse through some hosting directories and post a request in the requests forums, be sure to include the exact features you need to get a good response

Here are some companies Ive only heard good things about. But again, do a search on the forums. These are also all well established companies, and aren't new to the whole hosting business :)

www.FutureQuest.com
www.Site5.com
www.VenturesOnline.com
www.DreamHost.com

Good luck!

Thanks everybody!!!
Wow, I got like 50 emails on my subject within 15 minutes of each other!!!!!! I think I should be set, so unless you have an incredible offer, please cease fire!!! lol. Thanks everyone SOOOOO much, I am glad to be reassured that the internet isn't just a bunch of bloodsucking hackers.http://dhoss0.tripod.com/smiley.gif :)

I just got to add. Many people will be sending you messages with their personal hosting companies, many of which will just have opened within the last month or two and have an unproven track record. I have nothing against those hosts, but if you are looking for reliability, try going with a host that has been around for a while.

Check out how long a host has been around by seeing if they had a website up a few years ago, very cool free feature at http://www.archive.org

You bring up good, valid points, but I would have to disagree with you on using archive.org. I have setup my sites to dis-allow their Robot because I do not like what they do/offer nor how they go about doing it. Which is why I choose to block them.

I would suggest instead you basic WHOIS check to see when the Domain Name was first registered. Some Registrars give more information than others, but it's good "basic" way to at least, determine the age of the Domain Name. Always a good sign too, when the site has a Forum. That can speak stronger than most anything else.

WISEHOSTING.NET (http://www.wisehosting.net):agree:

A good place to search for hosts is http://www.hostfinders.com -- they list a number of common categories and return intelligible results.

http://www.hostway.com (in my humble opinion, the best one in terms of value and quality of service.) Already a corporation so no growing pains.

check out:

http://www.tophosts.com (always in the top 10 or so)
http://www.webhostdir.com