In case you haven't been paying attention, there's a 'new wave' of web hosting companies out there that are (1) offering up a whole pisspot full of interesting options, and (2) offering you more server space and bandwidth than you'll ever use.

• Unlimited gigs of server space
• Unlimited gigs of monthly bandwidth
• Unlimited domains you can host on it
• 2,500 email POP boxes
• For $6.95 a month?

I had read that my old web host was "seriously out of date", and it didn't take long to find out that was correct.  The server space and bandwidth of the 'new wave' companies is so incredible that at first I thought it was a gimmick.

But I did the research, read some reviews, looked over the web sites and went with BlueHost.  Everything has been 100% perfect.  No dropped lines during transfers, no clogged Internet, a quick display of my web site, and FTP has handled smooth as silk — which is saying a lot.  I've been using two different companies to host my sites over the past few years, and have been plagued with FTP time-outs during uploads.  I uploaded the original site (900 megs) all at once without a hitch.

If you're thinking of firing up a blog site, I've just spent innumerable hours perfecting this site.  It's not as easy as the 1-2-3 quickie sites like Google Blogger, but it's much more configurable and you retain your domain name.

 
If you've read my bio, then you know I've been webmastering since the web was one month old and did it professionally for nine years, and I wouldn't recommend these guys if I didn't think they were tops.  I suggest you take advantage of the savings and sign up for a year or more.
 

Additional Info

If you're still not convinced about BlueHost, specifically, allow me to pass along a few things I've noticed about them: 

• One of the most dangerous things in the world of web hosting is allowing users to have what's called "shell access" to their sites.  This means you can actually go in and change the attributes of the files and folders on the company's server, like making a file "read only".

  
It's dangerous because this also means someone can upload and run EXE files (programs) on the server.  This means a bad guy can write a malicious program, upload it to the server and run it.  Obviously, the threat this poses to the entire system is serious, and many companies don't allow shell access anymore.  Yet it's important to the users, because it's an EXE on the server that often runs things like shopping carts. 

Or blogging software. 
  
In BlueHost's case, they give you shell access, but you have to provide them with a photo ID.  They recognize how important shell access can be, but they're taking it seriously enough to spend the extra manpower verifying accounts.  Since the entire server (including my site) could be wiped out by a malicious EXE, I appreciate them going the extra mile by requiring the photo ID. 
  

• Suddenly, right in the middle of the afternoon, after working fine for its first few weeks, this web site went back to the Network Solutions "Under construction" page; the one it displayed when I first bought the domain name from them.

  
I called up BlueHost — they answered immediately — and the guy took about ten minutes away from the phone trying to figure it out.  He came back and said that Network Solutions had undergone some kind of change that afternoon and that a ton of web sites were 're-propagating' and it should be back soon, which it was. 
  
The thing is, it would have been real easy for the guy to say, "I just looked at the DNS routes and they're all pointing to here, so the problem must be with Network Solutions.  Best give them a call!"  In my long experience, that's what they usually do. 
  
Then I probably would have spent an hour waiting on the phone for Network Solutions to tell me what the BlueHost guy did.  Basically, "Don't worry about it, it'll be back soon."  The fact that the BlueHost guy hung in there and tracked down the info was pretty cool.