Hosting: Making an educated decision

[jconly]

Hey guys, I'd totally appreciate any help you can give.

I'm a photographer looking to switch my site from Dot5Hosting to another host.

Although my site is still a prototype, it is at least at this point very basic.
I have my portfoilo, my resume, and my contact info (scratch the bio). I would eventually like to add a client section, allowing certain clients to log on to view their images, as well as download and upload full res files. In addition, my portfolio software is still undetermined, and I've been thinking about switching the resume to Spry Framework (I work in Dreamweaver).

I've been looking at:
Dreamhost
Blue Host
1&1

At this point, I'm not looking to shell out a ton of cash a year. I'm still on a relatively small budget, but of course, marketing is important.
Storage space probably wont be of very large concern (at least at this point), but the more for my money, the better of course.

Again, I really appreciate how insightful you guys have been so far (I've been lurking), and your help means a lot.
(Both on the hosting, and on my site )

Thanks again

---------
Justin Conly
www.conlyphoto.com
jconly@nauticom.net

 

[Royale w/cheese]

I know godaddy is not the cheapest, but I have had no problems with them.

 

[zimv20]

happy user of hostgator.com here.

 

[OutThere]

Customer service @ http://www.asmallorange.com/ is second to none, if that matters to you.

 

[jconly]

Thanks for the replies.
I will look more into those.

One question.
On DreamHost's website, I was very impressed by their breakdown of services. They have a page dedicated to giving each little feature a detailed description. On this page, they talk about how with them the mail server is actually on my server. They say I have the full option of configuring. Is this also true with the other providers?

Having a PUSH IMAP server is important to me.
I would like to be able to set this up with whomever my host may be.

 

[tominated]

most servers do have that from what I believe. BTW: maybe have a look at eboundhost. they have super fast servers and are only $6 a month for the lowest plan (but it is really awesome still).