Webhosting for Large Sites

Hey Guys,

I've got a few sites coming up and one in particular is set to be quite large and popular. I need a host that I can rely on, get in touch with easy enough and really understand good customer relations.

Hit me with your ideas/recommendations.

Thanks

mediatemple.

Do you own a large site that's hosted there Tom? I've been with MT before and I don't really admire their service.

How large is quite large?

MediaTemple suck ass. Seriously, avoid at all costs. After a while, both speed and support SUCKS.

I'd recommend ThePlanet if you're after a dedicated, but you haven't actually mentioned what you're after.

Shared? VPS? Dedi?

Yeah, how large is quite large like Indy said?

If your looking for shared hosting then I fully reccomend Bluehost, seldomly has any downtime, they also have live chat available 24/7 whitch I have found invaluable.

I have hosting accounts with several other companys such as:

Media Temple - customer service is terrible, they rarely respond to my support questions.

Dream host - is OK. dont like there custom control panel

Site 5 - they seem to reboot servers on a weekly basis (that's how it appears for me atleast) as my sites go down around once a week for 15+ mins, customer service is OK, there friendly and always respond to emails but waiting time varys from 2 mins to 8+ hours.

Cirtex Hosting - OK for small sites, but if you use alot of CPU resources they will suspend your account pretty quickly.

Thats my round up of shared hosts from personal experiences

When I say fairly big I'm talking on the scale of a blog with close to 10,000 subscribers and forums with a few thousand + members and high activity.

I'm looking for a good solid shared host, or a dedicated server.

I have not had any problems with my dedicated server over at MediaTemple and the very few times I actually had to call support, they handled the issue quickly and smoothly.

However given that other people have had issues with (mt) and I'm sure that has made you skeptical about going with them, I have heard a lot of positive things about ThePlanet.

Do you have a specific number of uniques in mind?

As forums often recieve a lot more guests per day, than actual members.