need web hosting advice

hi folks. i've registered a domain and would like to host a website and get email via that domain name. im looking into webhosting options, and there are zillions. ive googled and spent most of the afternoon reading and thinking about this.

here's what i know:

1. it's going to be for a cheesy personal site. photos, text, thats it. no scripts. no ecommerce. no perl. no cgi. no blah blah blah. imagine it is still 1994 - thats the website i will make. (sorry, im lame that way. )

2. im cheap. $7.95 seems to be the going rate for ~500MB of storage and ~40GB of data transfers. i want to pay $5 a month, have more than 10 email addresses, get ~250MB of storage space, and have ~10GB of data transfer. i have no clue why i care about $2-3 a month, and maybe in another day or so i wont, but right now i do. mostly i care about not getting the best bang for the buck.

what i know seems to always make such a short list...

anyone know a cheap reliable solution? (short of hosting it myself - i dont want to do that.)

thanks.

My solutions

I use two different providers, after trying various ones. I have had Verio, ATT WorldNet, ATT Broadband, Aplus Net, Interland, Magicnet, Comcast, and others...

Any way the ones I like the most are:

http://www.hostmysite.com/
http://www.fatcow.com/

If you go with either of them, can you let them know that I refered you? I do not work for them, but I get perks for referals. Host my site gives me a little more control than some others and I do pay a little more for it. Fatcow works well for simpler stuff, like what you are wanting to do.

I work at an Internet based company called iProsper.net doing advertising and technology sales. We do a lot of consulting with individuals who want a site for various reasons.

$7.95 is a steal of a price. Just be sure you get what you think you are getting.

Primarily, do you really own the domain name, or is it in fact a "lease" from the company where you bought it. A subtle ploy that we hear every day is the person who "purchased" their name as a domain name, and then find the only way they can have a web site is to buy it from the same provider.

If you can take the domain name to any ISP and get set up, you are okay.

I am quite partial to hostforweb.com, they host many of my sites and do quite a good job (and you cannot beat the price.) My biggest problem with budget hosts has been pathetic customer support - took me a while to find one with quick turnaround and a 1-800 support line that is actually answered. I would recommend them.

I'm using AN Hosting and so far been happy with response times from help desk, server etc. and for the price, around $80 a year got 1000 gigs of space and 50 gigs transfer. Unlimited email accounts so I can make lots of "disposable" ones plus full support for cgi, perl, frontpage, etc, unlimited subdomains too, not that I really need them. So far (5 months) so good.

RM

thanks to everyone who took the time to post responses.

there are so many choices out there, i decided the right thing to do was to find a way to pull the trigger, move forward, and still have options down the road that allow me to adjust as i learn more. i believe i accomplished this.

i went with ixwebhosting.com. theirs is not the cheapest/most generous offer, but it seemed to offer me flexibility. i've got 500MB of space and 5GB of traffic for $4.95 per month. i can upgrade anytime (they all offer this) but more importantly i paid in advance to avoid a setup fee, and i can quit and get my money back if i need to, which i think is great. so over the next few months, i'll learn about actual usage, and adjust accordingly, which is fine.

the whole process was amazingly simple and fast. i'll start a new thread about html editors advice now...

thanks!