I've had hosting with
1&1 since their original freebie offer 8 or 9 years ago. I used to register domains with GoDaddy, but because of their penchant for confiscating 'em without notice, and generally crappy interface, a couple years back I moved all my domains to 1&1 as well. If I ever need a hosting upgrade, I'll do it with 1&1.
Been nothing but happy with 1&1. I get a lot for my money (and what I get keeps expanding over time, at no additional cost). Their "control panel" gives me complete control over my domains (I can point them wherever I want), websites, mailboxes (including forwarding and webmail), FTP, etc. Tech support is
Real Humans with
Real Clues, not script-monkeys or bots. And if your payment gets messed up [my Discover card sometimes barfs for no reason], they get in touch with you and wait for your payment to go thru -- unlike a lot of hosts that will confiscate your domains at the first late payment (and resell them to the highest bidder).
A couple others I can recommend because of friends' good experiences with them are
Dreamhost and
Lunarpages. My one friend (who knows his stuff) lives right down the way from Dreamhost and goes there to do his own maintenance at need.
One thing to beware of: if you decide you want a domain, DON'T "check to see if it's available" -- I don't know of ANY trustworthy places to do that anymore. The problem is that if you check to see if it's available but don't
immediately register it, the place where you checked
WILL register it, in their own name, usually within 24 hours (I'd guess there are scripts that do the job). And then if you
really wanted that domain, it's liable to cost you $200 to $10,000 to buy it, rather than the $10/year or so it would have been up front. Or you can wait 2 or 3 years and see if it's abandoned, but that may never happen. "Domain squatting" costs so little that there's no disincentive for the registrars.
Also, always make sure the domain is registered in YOUR name, not in the hosting company's name (as many will do if you ask for "private" registration, where your contact details aren't available to anyone who asks). I know personally of a case where the registrar stole the client's domain that way, and then made a good business of selling his freeware off what had been his domain. (Since he was just a kid and lived in another country, he really couldn't do anything to stop them.)