I just signed up with Hostway.com they have several packages and seem to be reasonable so far.

Interland

This link is to their basic hosting plans. This is a premeir hosing service, and they are very responsive, no matter how small or big you are.

They have plans running from $16.95 to $212.45 a month, and every possible service.

I would avoid the so-called "free" hosting services.

Hank

Hi Politico - I own and operate Super.Nu Webhosting. We start our fifth year in business this January, and we are financially strong. We offer an outstanding hosting product at a rock bottom price - and we have excellent tech support. Check us out: http://www.super.nu

This is the service I use, and I'm extremely happy with it:

On Line Marketing

I've used them for several years, and have never had any problems  :-)

Yea Interland is okay and I would go with them. They aren't fabulous but they do answer the phone.

They just merged with a few other providers to grow their business so they do have some growing pain.

That's the easiest way I've found. But, you could put a box on a DSL modem in the corner and post away. DirectTV offers DSL through Bellsouth with a fixed IP for like ($49 per month).

You could Unix or Windows PWS the server. Don't pay extra for what you already have.

I had a link to a guy with a web site describing how to do it in detail if you are interested in that solution.

Good Luck.

I'm setting up an Internet hosting, design, & marketing company in the next month at http://www.netpublicist.com and will have hosting starting at $9.95 per month.

My own company does web hosting - with a particular emphasis on eCommerce and eCommunity sites - and we've been doing it...gosh, seems like forever, but certainly as long as there has been a web (in fact, we started as a humble BBS, if anyone remembers what they were).

Anyhow, that said, the first person I recommend you contact is Free Republic's own JohnRob. I don't know if he does anything outside of his work to FreeRepublic, but I suspect he does, and he's "all over" Internet technology. And, if JohnRob in fact is providing general web development and/or hosting services, then I would urge all Freepers needing Internet services and/or hosting to give him preferential consideration.

Also, keep in mind that price is but one component of the Internet service equation.

Check out CNET for price and service comparisons and user comments on various hosts.

thank you all for the information.

I recently helped a relative setup a web site on powweb.com.

I was impressed with what they offered for the price. Lots of web space and transfer bandwidth, 50 email accounts, and most of the tools you need to establish a decent web site. The total cost was only about $7.77 a month (I think that's right) and $15.00 to establish your domain name. I don't know about reliability, but they've been happy with it so far.

If you're going to establish an e-commerce site that you are going to depend on to feed your family, I would recommend going with one of the larger, better known web hosts. But if you're just setting up an informational site, you may want to give the powweb.com people a try.

I run two websites hosted by XO.com (formerly Concentric). Excellent services and prices and (cross my fingers) hasn't been done even one minute in more than two years.

I've had a hosting account with Webster Computing Services since 1996 and have been very satisfied. Their cheapest account only costs about $13.00/month.

Webster Computing Services

Site it anywhere you want, such as your DSL provider's free webspace. Then go to MyDomain.com, purchase your domain name for cheap, and take advantage of their free stealth redirection service. Thus you can have a URL such as http://www.yourdomain.com that points to pages on your free space, and no one's the wiser. I do this for several sites. Freepmail me for examples.

Thanks for everyone's advice. Can I register the name first and then go to a service?

Can I have the service register the name first so my personal information doesn't come up on a "WHOIS" lookup?

Yea Steve, you operate a great hosting site! Tons of down time, web sites and servers shut down without warning, extortion and withholding data. We pay you for service, which you then cannot provide and demand more money for our site to be put back up?? No thanks!! Check out the BBB for this company's history!!!