wait_timeout & webhosts question

Hey guys,

I got a small question about the wait_timeout of vBulletin. I red on some forums that some webhosting companies lower the wait_timeout of mysql and that this could lead to many sql db timeouts. I am currently looking for a new cheaper host for my forum and came across this fact.

For example, there are a couple of webhosting companies I got my eyes on. CirtexHosting.com is one of them. They offer good packages (too good ofcourse, probably overselling) and I send them a mail asking about the wait_timeout. After a couple of hours I got an e-mail back saying that the wait_timeout is set to 30. But when I look in admincp (maintenance->diagnostics->system information) at my current webhost I get the number 28800. What's up with that? They say they got their own vBulletin forum running on a wait_timeout of 30 but I red on vbulletin.com that every webhost should have 28800. Can anyone tell me some more things about this problem?

By the way, to the members who know a lot about webhosts, I got my eyes on the following webhosting companies. Maybe you could take a look at it together with the info of my forum and check which one is probably the best. My forum counts 17,000+ members and on normal days there are around 20-40 members/visitors online simultaneously. But the record of the forum is set on 234. This is because every now and then I release something that is very popular and groups of members and visitors just drop by. I got a bunch of mods installed on my forum. The biggest ones are vBShoutBox 2.1 (which is used very often), Downloads II (same as shoutbox) and iBProArcade (used less then the previous two). I would like to stay on a shared hosting. This is because I don't earn that much with the website and don't got enough money of my own to pay for a dedicated server or whatsoever. If you need to know more just let me know please.

These are the webhosting companies I am interested in:

* CirtexHosting (either Advanced or Economy, got a coupon code for 50% off with first payment.. even when paying for a year!)
* StreamLine (Power or Unlimited)
* Site5 (That $5 Deal .. and I know, it's really overselling but is it that bad @ Site5?)
* AlwaysWebhosting (Gold Deal... got a 90% off in first year payment coupon code)

I hope someone can help me out with the wait_timeout question or can share some experiences with one of the webhosts mentioned above.

Thanks in advance.

Greetz,

Bozza

P.S. Another question: I spoke with someone in LiveChat @ HostGator and he was very honoust with me and told me that their Shared Plans wouldn't work very well with my current forum activity and future plans. When I asked them how many simultaneously SQL connections the shared plan could have and he said 25. What does this number say exactly? That 25 visitors can access the mysql at the same time? Is this a low number, normal or high (which I doubt) number? He also said that the wait_timeout on HostGator shared plans was 3600. Could anyone tell me what to expect with a wait_timeout of 3600?

I am glad that I didn't fall into the trap of the huge offer of bandwidth and diskspace... if just wouldn't work with my site and my site isn't even a big one. It's purely coz I'm running a forum.