Intelligent hosting recommendations requested

I'm trying to find a good hosting company and, as many of you know, while many, many hosting services look GREAT on paper, they can be a big disappointment when you actually use them. Well, I'm looking for a hosting service for my business, which is a PROFESSIONAL web development business, and I can't afford to try to find a good host by trial and error. So, I hope that you can lend me the benefit of your experience so that I can select a good host from the jump. I'd do the same for you, but unfortunately I could really only tell you about a few hosts to avoid.

I'm a web developer and this post is for other web developers. We've all had bad experiences with hosting companies. I've learned that the only way to get reliable information about hosting is from my colleagues, other web developers. We need to help each other out to avoid the many pitfalls of web hosting, and in this case I need your help.

I am talking in the first place about a shared hosting service. I'm a web developer and not interested in taking on the responsibilities of system administrator. I'm optimistic that there are shared hosting services that meet my requirements, but if that's not the case, please let me know that too.

These are things that I absolutely REQUIRE:

• The company is not a reseller, has been in business for AT LEAST 2 years, is financially and otherwise stable, and is entirely located in the United States -- their offices, server facilities, support personnel, etc.
• Linux / Unix
• Apache -- modern version (e.g. in the 1.3.xx range)
• Flexibility on the part of the hosting company in configuring Apache, e.g. to add modules such as mod_headers or whatever makes sense
• PHP 4 -- running as Apache module, modern version, kept updated
• Flexibility on the part of the hosting company in configuring PHP, e.g. to add features such as extensions like CURL, WDDX, or whatever makes sense
• MySQL -- modern version (e.g. in the 3.23.x range)
• Multiple MySQL databases and users
• Perl 5 -- modern version
• Shell access (telnet / SSH)
• Reliable, fast web and FTP servers (they don't have to be the fastest in the world, but must not be sluggish or unreliable)
• Good customer service and technical support -- support personnel that are responsive, dependable, and professional both in their technical skills and their behavior
• Self-service administration of as much as is practical, e.g. new accounts (domains), email accounts, FTP accounts, MySQL databases and users, etc.
• Raw log access
• Cron
• POP service
• SSL capability

I'm not going to bother specifying any particular amount of storage space, bandwidth, etc. because I would expect that any service that meets the above requirements would offer a range of plans, or some flexible scheme covering variables like that.

A service that is oriented to reselling hosting may work well. I am not reselling hosting, but rather will be hosting / administering / maintaining my clients' sites and a reseller oriented service may be structured well for that, in terms of things like how the accounts' (domains) files are organized and pricing structure.

I am NOT looking for a CHEAP price as such. I am looking for a service that meets my requirements for a FAIR price.

I would really appreciate recommendations based on PERSONAL experience that you have with a hosting service, that meets ALL of the requirements I outlined. Please ONLY recommend a service if

1. you do PROFESSIONAL website development (you are paid for your work), preferably including some application development (e.g. w/ PHP / MySQL / Perl), and have at least about 6 websites hosted with the service -- the more sites you have hosted, the more weight your recommendation will carry (I personally am talking about hosting potentially several dozen sites)
2. you have used the service for AT LEAST about six months
3. you do not work for, or have any other direct connection to the company that provides the service, or any conflict of interest in recommending them

Thanks for taking the time to carefully read my long post. It is a very important decision I have to make and I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness in considering what I've written before replying. Your well-founded recommendation could prove invaluable, wheareas a poorly made recommendation could have disastrous results.

Given your requirements, particularly about adding modules to Apache and extensions to PHP you need to look at dedicated servers. If you find a host willing to make those changes on a shared server, you'll probably find it's not that secure or reliable.

If you lack the skills to admin the server yourself, you can get a managed dedicated server, but that can get expensive.

I can't accept your assessment at face value without more information, but I hope you'll explain in more detail.

Here's more information about what I mean.

There's no universal Apache or PHP configuration. Each shared hosting service that I've used has had a certain set of features / modules / extensions installed that differs from the other services and differs over time. So I don't agree with the reasoning that installing a PHP extension, for example, that wasn't installed before is automatically going to cause a problem.

Not many developers would find a PHP installation without any of the extensions very useful, so unless the service just happens to have the ideal PHP setup (who would determine what that setup is and how, I have no idea) when you begin using it, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that additional extensions could be installed as necessary. I'm talking about extensions distributed with PHP. Saying that a system has PHP installed isn't saying much considering the major differences in functionality covered by the extensions.

Whatever skills I lack in that field are well within my ability to learn, but what makes that idea infeasible is the amount of time that would be required to administer the server. I'm the web developer at a small company, so that amount of time couldn't just be swallowed up without hiring another employee or something like that. The managed server option would undoubtedly be too expensive.

Thanks for your input, I hope you reply because I'd like to flesh out some of these issues more. If you don't mind saying, I'd be interested to know about your hosting situation -- if you're using / providing any hosting services, for what purposes, on what scale, etc. It would just provide perspective in considering your points.

As you can see, my thread is going nowhere. If you need to discuss some hosting issues, check out www.webhostingtalk.com. I found out about it yesterday, and already I'm getting much better response there.

Powweb.Com is a great Hosting Company.

Around 4 years old, They run, and manage their own network. An active community forum with over 8,000 members. There uptime is great, actual SPEED is real good. servers are not overcrowded. Their web interface is inhome company designed with all all/more features than most standard hosting software etc; Plesk, Ensim, CPanel. very configurable .htaccess, unlimited subdomains..

a real good place if you want a fast stable website. Their support is also great. no having to wait for help tickets, forums/tutorials alone are outmatched.and phone service is excellent.

If you are still looking for a hosting company a good place to start is www.itsallnet.com or www.webhosters.com - each have lists of hosting companies listed by category.

i mean i don't know. but wth was the point of caps and making those words bold? you said your self you needed andINTELLIGENT hosting recommendations.

people like me who need those bold words wouldn't reply in the first place.

imagine, please tell me more about your personal hosting situation there.

Jcaputo, as I said, I am looking for personal recommendations. Selecting a service from a web hosting directory is just taking a shot in the dark without that.