I have a home based small business that I will need a web site for, but do not know when I will be able to accomplish that! Could be 6 mo's or more. Should I purchase the name for the site now before it is taken by someone else? I'm new to all this & just read a ton of pages here. VERY informative!!

yeah, buy it now before the name is gone and you're outta luck.

The minimum is 1 year. So if it takes you 6 months, no big deal. Just renew after that year is up.

Try dotster.com (http://www.dotster.com) as a registrar. I have 6 domains with them and I highly recommend them. Competitive prices, great management tools, and good customer service. I sent them a question this morning and by the afternoon had a response.

Thanks a bunch for the reply! Thank God for you "experienced" people to help those such as I!

Yes, definately buy the domain while it's available.

It's terrible to see your domain name of choice grabbed by someone else - someone who may or may not ever do anything with it - just because you were not ready to use it.

I recommend purchasing your domain separate from your hosting account anyway - just to prevent any potential problems with the hosting company not giving you full control or ownership of your domain - for whatever reason.

-t