[djaco99]

I started my first website last September, and got the cheapest hosting I could find (not knowing any better). I got it through plughost.com for like $36/year, and it came with a free domain name for 1 year. To make a long (and frustrating) story short, the hosting was terrible (lots of down time, awful customer service, etc...), and then they went out of business a few months ago. I couldn't even transfer my domain to my new hosting provider (hostgator - highly recommended), because the "free domain name" was never registered to me. Fortunately I always keep current backup copies of everything, so I still have my website on disk. Now I have to wait till September when the domain name expires and I'll try to get it back.

The important thing I learned from all this is "you get what you pay for". If you get cheap or free, you will have problems. It's better to pay a little extra for quality hosting up front - it will save you money in the long run.