Good overal all rounded reliability of course.
Other than that i like one that gives away alot but not too much that it looks too good to be true and you find out it flaws in some other areas.
It has to be a legitimate host with good standing but will settle for one that has some longevity and experience. theyre usually the most sturdy ones.

personally i dont think id even need 1gb of space.
wld prb only use 5%. but still the more the merrier.
as for Bandwidth 10-30GB's month wld be purrfik

Unix hosting preferably Dont entirely mind though.
Free Domain Name is a definite Bonus but not essential.
Has to be php/mysql enabled and offer cpanel e-commerce eMail, FTP, SSL, stats etc etc.

Also some nice incentivey (is that a word?) bonuses wouldnt go a miss either

I see that some host offer such things as
Faceboook Ad Credits
Google AdWords Credit
Yahoo! Sponsored Search Credits
(I could use that for the business i want to start)
Using these would help me in my quest for pr etc. I think.
I would like them but only godaddy are offering the fbook ones.

Anyway, while i wouldnt say myself im a complete novice to hosting and being a host Im still to work out what the difference is between Virtual Servers, Dedicated Servers and Shared hosting is yet but im gettin there lol

Overal being a UK resident and living with a GB exchange rate i wouldnt really want to be spending any more than £10 a month on hosting.
For that price Id expect something good anyway.
At least a free domain name.

I can justify spending a little more on a deal if its going to be good im looking at godaddy for my choice of hosting and domain name and may ask for help with the best deal from there for me soon. coupon codes etc.

Ideally though I want to keep my outgoin costs as low as possible but i still dont want to sacrifice it for the sake of bad service you know?

Im in the process of setting up business which wont cost alot to start up but i literally have no outlay at the moment and am doing things bit by bit and as affordable as possible. hence the help with the hosting

Some other things that im looking into a host having is Privacy Service for masking domain info. Not for unscrupulous, but justified genuine reasons.

So yeh, thats pretty much what im looking for i look forward to peoples help etc
oh and if anyones got any coupon codes for godaddy etc that would be great!

Shared Hosting is where you simply rent space on a server along with however many other clients and sites the hosting provider sees fit.

A Virtual Server is where a single machine is partitioned in several independent "virtual machines" using partitioning software such as VMware or Virtuozzo.
Depending on hardware, the host should only have 4 or 6 VMs on one physical machine, but some of course oversell this as well.

A Dedicated Server is one where you are the one and only user of the hardware.

I believe that in any case your request should be simplified. And you need to find the solution which will suit you. In othe world what you have said you need to ask but during the presales conversation only.

im looking for speed, quality, good customer support and pricing!

Take a look around - most hosts (even the non-oversellers) can offer what you're looking for at a relatively cheap price.

You should for some sort of all in one solution.

Hostgator is good, and they have some 1 cent special on some packages

im looking for speed, quality, good customer support and pricing!

They are general statements here. I believe you need to have a piece of paper and draw your needs down to understand at least what you need and in which part of the web hosting world your search can be done

I assume that worth to start your work with the forums by checking what is being offered and only then if nothing is found create the thread

Originally Posted by maineyak

Hostgator is good, and they have some 1 cent special on some packages

I suppose that the question was what to look when you search for web host, not who is the best one

HG is used as common name on many forums. I just have such feeling

Your requests aren't hard at all. Your looking at spending 5$ for reliable service.

Yup, many web hosting company provide affordable plans and support as well.

Try to look forthe one that suits your needs. Are you looking for Linux or Windows Based hosting plans?

For anyone thats interested in the end the host i was happiest with after searching around for a while is http://www.cnahost.com/

I feel they look basic but are still a good host. good customer service, easy to talk to by email or msn etc for pre sales questions.
Ive only chose there Novice package to start with which is only on there shared hosting (just to start with) and which to be honest isnt that bad for there most basic deal. 5gb HDD, 50gb B/W 2ftp accounts 50emails 10mysql's parked domains full cpanel 1 free Domain name and Domain name Privacy for FREE!
Which is what ive also been talking about on here a fair bit as well.

I didnt mean this to be a review but so far so good and they do have very competive prices overal for what i got my first payment only come to $11.89
With a monthly billing cycle of only $1.99 thats like UK £0.67. So not bad.

Overal so far have had no downtime the domain resolved and everything was put in place quite thoroughly for me and after talking with the host i feel happy with everything he actually added a service for me which they dont even offer.
You can add extra products and services if you want as well.
Extra B/W Space etc ID protection Dedicated IP's, mail forwarding and the like.
If you search around there is a 30$ promo code for them as well which i used.

Sounds like your found a good host for your needs. Best of luck

hg if fine work for many of my friends

Speed, price and service