Todd,

I know where you're at in your dilemma since I have been there many times. Although I have been working with DotNetNuke now for about 3 or 4 years I have always been on the lookout for a good hosting company at a modest price (almost all of my sites are done for free to nonprofit organizations).

1. Almost any hosting company with a "windows plan" will work with DotNetNuke. Some of the more basic plans however do not porvide MSSQL databases unles you upgrade to an improved plan. Along with MSSQL you will need ASP.NET 2.0 which will be available with your plan purchases.

2. A lot of hosting companies will provide you with a DotNetNuke website preinstalled for you. Some of them however will not provide the most current version and you will need to upgrade at a later date. If you plan to use DotNetNuke I think you would be better off just installing and configuring it right away. If you need advice on configuration you will get it in the dotNetNuke forum. If you need help with installation or configuration feel free to contact me at any time and I will help free of charge.

3. As mentioned above generally any hosting company providing a "windows plan" is sufficient.

4. A lot of the plans from the hosting company you select will provide a free domain name registration (actually included in the price). Most of them will make you pay extra to keep it if you are disallusioned with their services and cancel your account early. I have found for inexpensive price of $7 a year that it is better to purchase it yourself and own it outright. The domain registration company I have used for the last 10 years is the cheapest I could find anywhere while having one of the best support records I have seen. I have never found fault with them as long as I have been associated with them (http://1and1.com).

About web hosting companies and their plans - There are quite a few companies out there with a large difference in price/services. Generally when you go for the cheaply priced companies you may find that the load speed of your site might be just a little longer than a more expensive company due to the difference in the amount of accounts that their servers hold. If you are just getting started and your website is not critical to your business this might be the way to go initially. A lot of these companies either provide service charges monthly or provide a prorated money back guarrantee if you cancel at any time (full if cancelled within 30 days).

Now comes the experience part - I have been associated with a large number of companies in my 12+ years of web management. Some were excellent and some were just terrible that I would not refer them to my worst enemy. Most recently I was using a company called HostingChannel.net who had great support and did a wonderful job keeping the site up 24/7 at $1.83/month (1 year commitment). I liked them very much but they only provided space for 1 domain and I was expanding my windows-based business and needed multiple domain hosting at a resonable price. My search brought me to IXWebHosting.com where you could get an account with unlimited everything including domain hosting and space/bandwidth also providing dedicated ips which is very nice to have if you can get them. I decided to give them a try and things did not seem to be working out as my DotNetNuke-based sites were always going down (although my linux/php-based sites seemed to be running just fine). I did find out that they were in the process of moving their accounts to new servers in a different location and that could have been the reason for the problems. Shortly after the move was completed indeed there was a big change in the way my sites were operating. Although occasionally my site goes down (about 1 hour or less a week maybe) all of my DotNetNuke sites are working great and I have not had the opportunity to call support in the last 6 - 7 months. You would need to go to the business plan at $7.95/month to get the MSSQL databases but if you plan on having multiple websites like I do, it is perfect. I would recommend either one of these companies for inexpensive plans depending on your requirements.

I hope this helps and if you need any more info or help setting up your site - let me know.

Mike