Is there a good way to check to see a host's uptime?
ex. 99.9% or 95.5% Big Difference
Also, are there any reports that tell how long the host has been in business?

I see these great deals, but I'm often skeptical, because I know that it is not unusual for a host to be unreliable or here today, gone tomorrow.

You can monitor a host using InternetSeer (www.internetseer.com). http://uptime.netcraft.com/ also provides uptime for some domains (its really luck if the one you want is included).

A (not particularly accurate) way of finding out how long a host has been in business is to check its domain at www.betterwhois.com. This will ususally tell you when it was first registered.

Alternately you could try http://www.archive.org which may have archives of the site, so you can see roughly how old it is (this is a great site even if it doesn't give you any more info )

http://webmaster-talk.com/showthread...&threadid=1203

check that thread out, in the first post I think I made a comment about a webhosting ratings site...