Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I didn't see a better fit but feel to move it if needed. I am going to share a bad experience I am going through so if you're just starting out you may avoid these issues. Last July I started a site and registered a domain and got cheap hosting as I did not know if the site would work and I did not know any better. The domain was not registered in my name, but rather the hosting companies name. My site grew and I kept upgrading my hosting package till I had the best one they had, but my site kept growing. Yesterday their server went down for several hours and when it was back up my account was suspended and they sent me an email that it was indefinite as I crashed their server 3 times in July. Right now I'm in the proccess of transfering to a different host provided by a very kind person at DP but am still waiting for them to transfer the domain name into my control. This has been a very stressful situation, my site has been down for 24 hours and I have not slept since. In all I might have saved a few hundred dollars on hosting, if that, over the last year, but it wasn't worth it. My advice, I know, it's common sense, but I didn't know better at the time, research your hosts, make sure you have control over the domain name, trying to save some money can cost you a lot more in the long run. Go for an established host with a good track record, the small investment of time researching this may save you a lot of time and grief in the future. I am not naming any names as they do have a business to run and I understand their side of it. They have been cooperative up until this point, although a bit slow. Bottom line: Do your homework!
Actually, I would suggest the hosting by itself isn't the problem, it's having hosting and domain registration at the same place. If you can change the DNS info at the registrar you can be up and running on a new host very quickly (assuming you have a current backup of your site
This is true, but being a noob back them I assumed hosting and domain registration went hand in hand. I forgot to mention how important the back up is, luckily I learnt that through other people's experiences here at DP and I always have a 100% up to date backup.
When I registered my first domain I paid someone $50 to take care of the details of registering it with Network Solutions at $35 per year with a two year minimum
Not to be self serving or anything But you're not going to find a much better deal than this: http://www.slickricky.com/web_hosting/
I think you missed my point, I had a good deal, or so it seemed that cost me a lot more in the long run.