Yes... Register your domain at the source, www.networksolutions.com. You don't have to, and probably shouldn't, register your domain through your hosting site because you have no idea who they'll use as the registrar.
Since the monopoly was lifted from network solutions permitting other companies to register domains, the price has come down, but not at network solutions. Network solutions charges a premium, and this is not a service where the more you pay, the better off you are. Suffice it to say that I've been webmastering for about 10 years, and godaddy has some of the lowest rates for registering domains, and I use them after having been registered with other agencies, including network solutions way back in the day. godaddy.com has easy registration online, they don't own your name (watch out for web designers and host companies that register your name for you but own the name). Insofar as webhosting goes, inexpensive is not indicative of bad service. As far as I'm concerned, the criteria for picking a web host is a good amount of meg space, large amount of bandwidth, my own cgi, ftp, web control panel is nice, pop accounts, php, mySql, ssi, no setup fee is nice... these are the must haves. Real important is that they answer their phones anytime, that you speak to real people and not voicemail, but that service is always on and that when there is a problem, they're right on it. I've experienced that with www.fatcow.com, the others hosts I mention are known to me through other webmasters and their good experiences with them.
I've been doing this a long time, too, and one lesson I've learned is don't f* around over $10. I should make that my signature.
Just wanted my vote for www.GoDaddy.com for registering domains. I have several domains registered through GoDaddy -Fast
i third godaddy for domain registration. i use thrillhost.com for $5 a month hosting good enough for me with cpanel. there's also 8-95.com which is $8.95 total for 6 months, but no cpanel which is tougher if you want to run more advanced stuff like php/databases/etc.....
It looks like I will go with www.godaddy.com for registration. I'm also looking at using the "Private/Unlisted" that is offered for $9.00 a year. However, looking over the agreement for this service, it looks like a very open ended agreement for them to charge fees for services concerning: Forwarding Fees, Additional Administrative Fees, etc. Does any one have experiences, good or bad, with this "Domains by Proxy/Private" setup? Is it worth it to keep the private info out of the Whois database?
Top notch design firms still charge in the range of 50K minumum for their services and get it ...... I'm guessing that you dont actually need a top-notch design firm ... For lesser amounts of money and less demanding jobs there are a multitude of companies offering these services for small dollars - many of them recommended here. Just be careful who you end up doing business with as many of these firms start off with small fees to get you in the door and then charge hefty fees for ongoing work. Get a recommendation from a personal friend or business partner/associate, not off the public board.