Need Good Shared Host / Need Dedicated Server Recommendations

[HittingSmoke]

For shared hosting it just doesn't get any better than Webfaction in my opinion. It's cheap and powerful. VPS features on a shared host. You can compile any software you want so long as it doesn't break your RAM allocation (512MB on basic plan). You can also open firewall ports to run non-web servers for things like IRC and the like.