I have been having serious site performance issues with my current hosting company that have been dogging me since the beginning but have recently become absolutely unacceptable. I have given them more than one attempt at correcting the horrible latency issues that make my site unusable at times. The problem is not with my code or UBB Threads - it is them and I finally got them to admit it but they can't seem to fix it. So I am looking for advice on hosing companies and thought I would defer my research to you helpful people. I prefer a Linux server and at the very least need a minimum of 5 SQL databases, streaming video, PHP and e-mail.

P.S. - I am currently using Network Solutions

Here's a topic recommending a few different hosting services:

http://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/216111/Forum_server.html#Post216111

Thank you for the PM's and the link...

I find it difficult to really discern any significant differences between all of the hosting companies out there. Do a search and visit different "host rating" sites and you get varied results. I really need to stay within a budget and shared hosting offers many cheap options but I am afraid that going from what I have now to a different shared environment will give me the same problems. From what I read around here a VPS plan might be worthwhile but again, plans vary and so do costs.

Does anyone use or have used Go-Daddy? They have some affordable Linux VPS plans. Personally, I think there is no way to tell what your experience is going to be and I guess I am going to have to just go and do and see what happens.

Word of advice; don't use a domain registry for a webhost... results show it's bad... Especially so with GoDaddy and NetSol

Could you expand on that? Now that you mention this, Network Solutions is currently my registrar AND my hosting company. When I move my web sites to a different host, should I simply leave Network Solutions as my registrar? or are Net Sol and Go Daddy not advisable to use BECAUSE they are registrys? Don't most hosting companies offer domain registration?

No no no no... I'm saying, you shouldn't use a company that specializes in domain reistrations as a webhost; IMO they spread themselves too thin...

From what i've heard from clients, NetSol sucks as a host (and IMHO they grossly overcharge for domain registrations).

And most hosting sites that offer registrations are using a reseller account (like me, all of my domain registrations for clients go through eNom vs operating my own retry,which would cost an arm and a leg) so they don't see the same overhead and have to do as much as compared to NetSol or GoDaddy

AHHH! Got it. Network Solutions is definitely spread too thin and that is my problem - too much traffic, too much latency between the SQL server and the server cluster my sites are on. It has been absolutely miserable the last few months and I cannot allow this to continue as my site is down or hangs 50% of the time during the holiday season... scratch Go Daddy too I guess...

WebHosting Stuff has a pretty good VPS Listing (with reviews and the like)

More homework to do - great link Gizmo!

One more question...

Do I REALLY need a VPS?

I ask this because I read many recommendations on going that way. Considering my recent problems it seems this will eliminate me server problems but I wonder if my problems were more the host than anything else. My traffic averages 5,000 hits a week.

Well, it depends really; you'd have guarenteed resources... But you could try virtual hosting; that link has a "standard hosting" section as well