Hi, I have (almost) developed website for my client and now need to decide on hosting. Most of the users of the site will be located in Australia, and so am I and my client. Now, I want to consider everything before deciding on host and few questions comes to my mind:

1. I cannot afford website being down, and all hosts say something like "99% uptime guranted". Should just that be enough or shall I ask hosts for some stats maybe?

2. Does it make any difference if servers and whole hosting company is located in Australia or outside? I've been hosting few sites with JustHost.com on shared hosting (cheapest plan, servers in US I believe) and never seen any delays but could that be an issue? I would prefer Australian company so I can actually go to them and give them piece of my mind if something goes wrong, but US servers seem cheaper.

3. Would share hosting do? Its ecommerce custom build php application, I know there are security issues with sessions etc on shared hosting. Will take precautions of course but could share hosting be an issue? Would dedicated be worthy option considering that my knowledge of server is very limited?

I need to run php/mysql, with preferably unlimited bandwidth as with my experience I cannot tell what amount of traffic would be sufficient. Please let me know if I didn't provide you with enough information so you could answer my questions, will gladly explain further. In advance thanks for any answers :)