Domain Names and Webhosting.

I'm with www.1and1.co.uk and not had any problems.

I have 5 web names and 1 lot of space with them.

Do not touch 1and1, I have had to move almost 200 domains away from them this year, they are fine when things are working but if things dont work you are screwed.

You can speak to a call center in the far east, that only recieved email updates from the data center in germany. Company policy is to not allow you to speak to a supervisor or a manager, all complaints have to be in writing and supprise supprise they dont reply to letters.

Best place to register a domain is 123-reg, if you want hosting I can help you out with that I'll even do you a nice discount drop me a pm, let me know what you need and I'll see what I can do for you.

As for you forum, I asume your going to use phpbb, so you need PHP hosting and a mysql database, ideally you want the ability to run chron jobs so you can automate backup etc.

I use flump.net for my stuff. It aint cheap, But has full UK support, I got a support ticket solved the day after xmas in 30 minutes.
Also comes with Cpanel, which is great for all the nitty gritty jobs.

Cheers I will keep this as a ref, as first I need to do some testing, but this has been a great help.

I had problems with 1and1 until I went down to their office in Slough and wouldnt leave until they sorted the issues out.

I use www.ukreg.com for domains..

Their hosting company (partner) www.fasthosts.com has always been good when i've used it

I know of people with bad experience from 1&1 as well