I always take a few notes about a host before deciding which one to use. I'd like to share them with you. Maybe you guys can correct me if i am thinking in wrong terms, or you can share your pointers with me.

1) Make sure they are in business a lot longer.
2) They dont give free hosting. THere is always a risk that they might host those freebies on the same server as paid ones, which'll relaly crowd the main server
3) I'd take extra care if a host would provide "Unlimited Bandwidth"
4) Email them or call them with a 3-4 pre-sales and/or technical questions and note down their response just to see how fast they respond.
5) I'd go with host who uses CPanel, but still i can also use one who has recet control panel, for sure not like GoDaddy.
6) They give uptime guarrantee, with either money refund or credit for overlimit downtime.
7)Do not choose hosting with the company which provide free domain. The reason is i have heard many a times that people got ripped off becaues they changd the hosting, but then they come to know that they do not own the domain. So, i'd host my domain soimewhere else, rather than the same company.

Thats all i could remember right now, if i come to remember more then i'd post back.

Thank for that post! some good infomation! Hope people will look at this post before going to buy hosting! so they know what to expect and look for.

(rep added)

Thnaks for the rep, i appreciate it.

And , i do hope that it benefits somebody sometime.
When i started looking for host once, i visited many sites and then kept on posting and then step by step i got this information, which once a while i like to share with others.

one more point
8) Take care when some host ask you to deposit 12 month in advance. Dont do that, as if you decide to change host then many hosts might not give you a refund and then you are stuck with them.

thx for sharing jaswinder_rana, some quick points to follow when looking for a host

nice checklist there jaswindar. The most important part was the hosts offering free domains, and registering the domain under their name

Definitely make sure the hosting provider has been around for a while. You don't want to be caught dead on a fly by night host!

I agree with all of them, but I'm not too sure about your second one. Freebies aren't bad if a host only gives few of them to help promote their services. Another thing to look out for is reviews. If you can't find any reviews/comments/complaints about the host in Google, then it means that they're obviously new, or have no customers.

Yep... gr8 article indeed Jaswinder.

Like hostaddicts, I would like to say something on this. We do provide hosting to some clients and they have referred their friends to us. It is like advertising your business. My suggestion is that you must see whom you are giving free hosting and what they are going to do with that. If you offer free hosting to everybody and don't keep a close eye than you will always hang up into problems ... like spaming, illegal sites etc. In other words, offering free hosting is good but be extra careful.

Just my two cents.