Do hosting companies really offer unlimited web space. If so which is the best host that would be reliable for a file sharing website?
There is no such thing as unlimited. When your website(s) reach a certain amount of server resources, your account will get suspended and you will have to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server, or move to a different host.
You're opening up a can of worms. This has been done to death many times in other posts. A quick search will reveal all. But, as SolidShellSecurity says, when it comes to file sharing web sites your choices will be much more restricted.
Unlimited is never unlimited, It's just a marketing technique to make you think that your getting unlimited but your simply not, I always ask people this question "have you ever seen a unlimited sized harddrive" There is no such thing, It's just used to get more people to sign up for their hosting, as it's been said, read the ToS and fineprints etc
I've said what I have to say on this, but wanted to note (as others have done) that your best bet when it comes to file sharing is either a VPS or dedicated server. Most shared hosts will not allow you to run file hosting sites. If the content is not legal, your choices are going to be even far more limited.
Well, Web hosts offering unlimited hosting accounts are oversellers! I suppose that it will be a good idea to read TOS of the company before making any final order.
Whenever you see webhosts saying Unlimited this and that and offering webhosting at a very cheap rate then they are probably overselling.This means that they are pretty sure that their customers won't use all of the server resources.There are exceptions though !!
File Sharing is not allowed in shared hosting accounts, and if you're runnning a file sharing site your best bet would be to go with a dedicated server or a vps. Make your sure your content is legal as the us government is tracking down and putting everyone in jail over piracy don't matter where you're from anymore..
You may eventually hit a limit. Many providers offer unlimited but some of the time it means unlimited considering the usual usage of many clients. Before you make any decisions that could possibly lead to suspension due to high usage you should discuss your real needs with your provider.
Unlimited is never, unlimited. Its unlimited in the fact that if you use it following a fair usage policy, so for example all hosted files must be used, cant be used for file sharing etc etc. Each unlimted plan has a catch, just be sure to read them
If you need large disk space or bandwidth, it will not be wise to go with the unlimited shared ones. Better you search for limited providers who provide big quotas. There are some shared hosting providers who offer 1 TB bandwidth or even more. Most of the shared hosting providers do not allow file hosting. If you have the budget, go with dedicated.