Questions on hosting for a Forum

Hi,

I am looking for hosting space for my forum. I am very new to hosting and don't know too much about it.

My Forum has

400 users; 50 active users, not more than 15 on at a time
the site has been started 7 weeks ago, to give an idea of how fast it is growing.
I hope to have several thousand users in the near future.

I currently am running phpbb on 1and1. Just found out that their databases are limited to 100MB. Already, my board is using about 4MB (not a lot, but considering what I want in the future, I know 100MB will be a problem soon).

So, I am looking for a new host. A few questions:

What requirements should I look for?
When should I look to 'dedicated hosting'?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

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What kind of forum software would you like to have?

For the number of people you have now shared account is a good solution, later may upgrade to a bigger shared account. As far as I get the forum is your hobby and not your business, so shared will let you to keep to the budget.
One of the professional forum hosting solutions is siteground . Another option is to choose quality shared hosting from someone like accuwebhosting.com or valethosting.com.

i totally agree with natie .. you can offer a larger account .. its more tempting.

There are plenty of hosts that will suit your needs for now, however, keep in mind in a shared environment there are oftain CPU/Memory limits. Some hosts have even been known to shut down your account completely.

I wouldnt put more than 100 users at any one time on a shared account. Once you hit the 100 (roughly) mark, you'll need the benefits of a dedicated server.

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A VPS might be a good option: more power than a shared account, but less expensive than a dedicated server.

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