Personally, I've only had a couple problems with godaddy (I've had up to four hosted simultaneously). The shared hosting is always a pain but, you'll find that with any of your cheaper hosting. They're a fair bit more expensive on renewals than what they're offering new customers (go figure, the cable company does that crap). But, a few years ago, after I'd been a customer for quite a while ... I had to switch to monthly payments, before they'd called me if the payment was overdue or whatever. It was the farthest thing from my mind as I was mainly focused on trying to survive, they deleted ALL of my content for ONE late payment ... It wasn't even a month late, it was only a week or so ... But, I'm still with them ... Mostly because it's a hassle to register somewhere else and try to figure out their site and whatever.

I jumped on this thread for one simple purpose, is it possible to install symbiostock but, keep most of my theming in place? Or would it be easier to apply symbiostock to a page and then child theme it to look like the main site? I highly doubt it's even beneficial for me to be considering this with my tiny port. But, it's only one more site and figured it was worth the ask ...

I'll be starting with Bluehost just because I've been with them for years and not had any problems...

I've had a reseller account with HostGator for years. No major issues for me.

I'm hosting on Bluehost, and have had not problems in the setup so far.

Quote from: KuriousKat on December 16, 2013, 08:48

I'm about to set up a Synology disk station for backup and storage. The unit also has website hosting capabilities, so I want to know if this would be Symbio compatible?

See here for information on how it works:http://www.synology.com/en-global/support/tutorials/480

Thanks

It lists WordPress as one of the tested apps, so that's a start

ImageMagick as the image processor isn't listed, but can't see any reason it wouldn't work.

I'd suggest you see if you can find reports of other users successfully operating WordPress sites on this platform (what you wouldn't want is a trail of reports that it sort of works but this or that plugin doesn't). If that looks good, why not give it a try and let us know what happens?

I remembered about ktools hosting recommendations. I don't know how true they are and how much are influenced by various interests.

Hosting Suggested By Our Customers

webhostingpad.com    No troubles reported by customers
interactiveonline.com    No troubles reported by customers
mediatemple.net    No troubles reported by customers
bluehost.com    No troubles reported by customers
Aperture Host    No troubles reported by customers
leapfroghosting.co.uk    No troubles reported by customers
HostUpon.com    No troubles reported by customers
eukhost.com    No troubles reported by customers
thexyzserver.com    No troubles reported by customers
ixwebhosting.com    No troubles reported by customers

Not Recommended Hosting

GoDaddy.com    Customers have reported various problems along with frequent server updates that break PHP scripts.
hostgator.com    Customers have reported that they no longer allow photo websites.
PacificHost    Customers have reported that severe limits are now being put in place.
StartLogic.com, iPower.com, iPage.com    Customers have reported problems and very slow servers. Many problems have been encountered when installing PhotoStore and PhotoHost and StartLogic is strongly NOT recommended for our products at this time.
Easyspace.com    Customers have reported a session issue that may be able to be resolved with some additional code in the .htaccess file.
aruba.it    Customers have reported that they will not support ioncube which is required by PhotoStore.
Network Solutions    Customers have reported problems using PhotoStore/PhotoHost with Network Solutions hosting. They may be missing certain modules required by PhotoStore/PhotoHost. We have added them to the not recommended list until these issues can be resolved.
Fatcow.com    Customers have reported various problems.
One.com    Customers have reported various problems along with no ioncube support.
Powweb.com    Customers have reported various problems included getting kicked off of their hosting once they reach 9000+ photos.

I'm with GoDaddy many years and sometimes have some problems. Now I'm planning a couple of new websites and think about BlueHost.

Quote from: KuriousKat on December 16, 2013, 10:50

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 16, 2013, 10:43

Quote from: KuriousKat on December 16, 2013, 08:48

I'm about to set up a Synology disk station for backup and storage. The unit also has website hosting capabilities, so I want to know if this would be Symbio compatible?

See here for information on how it works:http://www.synology.com/en-global/support/tutorials/480

Thanks

It lists WordPress as one of the tested apps, so that's a start

ImageMagick as the image processor isn't listed, but can't see any reason it wouldn't work.

I'd suggest you see if you can find reports of other users successfully operating WordPress sites on this platform (what you wouldn't want is a trail of reports that it sort of works but this or that plugin doesn't). If that looks good, why not give it a try and let us know what happens?

I am installing the system anyway, for backup and storage, so I may as well give it a try. I don't really have much of a clue how to go about tit, but I have nothing to lose by trying. I'll let you know if it works!

For playing around it might work and might be fun but isn't very practical in real world terms.  The benefits you receive from renting space form a web host is
- MUCH BETTER internet line.  Most internet connections don't have a very fast UP connection... down might be fast(ish) but up isn't very fast.  Even if it is fast, it isn't going to compare to what a proper web host would offer.
- Up time - most web hosts would have a 99.9% up time.  What happens when your power goes out, someone unplugs the server to do some vacuuming or it simply just crashes. 
- Static IP ... not all ISP give out static ip's.  There are work arounds but they are a big pain.  If you have a dynamic IP address it will be a real head ache trying to host a server from your house
- Shared hosting is actually pretty smart.  A bunch of people are essentially getting together, buying a speedy server (a machine made especially for the task) and splitting the costs.
- +++ a few more arguments I haven't thought of...