George, if you are looking to buy the domain name only I have heard that
GoDaddy is the best place to get it through(cheapest and you get to own the
domain name). I have heard that they are not very good to use to host the
site but I cannot remember wy my friend said she would not use them again.
If you want to see if a name is already registered go to
http://www.networksolutions.com/ and follow the instructions. I believe that
this is the best place to search because they are one of the sites who do
the registering of the names. As far as hosting a site I can't remember who
y friend said to try. If I can I will find out from her but there are a lot
of places that are pretty cheap.I found one called dirtcheap domain names
that seemed pretty reasonable but I haven't been able to get my name
registered and set up a site so this is all hearsay. Good luck and let me
know if any of this turns out to be wrong or right. Later, Cliff R.