[afaps]

Hi - I'm a total beginner at this, so any and all help is much appreciated. Do I absolutely have to pay to register a domain name? If so, what's a reasonable charge? Where's a good (re: reputable) place to go to register?
Thanks!

[etaf]

Hi, and welcome to the TSG forum

prices vary considerably have a look around the net.
however, some companies will set up a host and domain name and all you have to do is dial in at least once every thirty days.

anything from free as described - £9.99 for 2 years for forwarding upto £100's of pounds.

what country are you in?
as you can see i'm talking UK

[BillC]

I use GoDaddy and they charge from $5 to $9 per year depending on the type of domain name. They have great service from my point of view and offer other services a la carte if you are interested. http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp

[afaps]

Okay, these companies that set up a host a domain name essentially for free...how can I find them? Would it score any pity points to tell people that I'm setting up this website for my job as a full-time volunteer in an AIDS hospice in Puerto Rico?

[etaf]

as i said it depends on country - i only know of one is UK and the cost of calls from Puerto Rico would make this option far to expense

do a search in google for free hosting use advance and set the host to you country
http://www.101domain.com/pr.htm

try a search in google

web hosting site:.pr

with free hosting , web hosting , domain names etc etc
the site:.pr looks at domains in your country

then maybe try without the site but add "Puerto Rico" to reduce the search

[zabby]

afaps, as a beginner, you try out http://www.tripod.com or http://www.geocities.com
These sites help u with building the site (with site builder tools) too..
They give a long domain name (if u try for free) which u can shorten with the help of www.dot.tk
All the best!!!

[forddude]

I'm going to go with yahoo. They just lowered their price for domain registration:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/