I need:

- A domain name.

- A hosting service.

- (most important): open source software for establishing a community (discussion area, download area, blog area, user management...).

- anything else?

In many cases your Internet Service Provider will offer a small amount of free hosting, but that鈥檚 usually sufficient for getting started. If you discover that you need more than what they provide both Yahoo and Godaddy.com offer hosting packages along with a domain name registration service.

As for designing the site, you didn't mention if you knew HTML or if you had a web page editor, but many web hosts offer easy to use tools for setting up your first site. You鈥檒l soon outgrow them, though, and want something better so I would suggest learning HTML and try picking up the free Matrix Y2K to use as an HTML editor. You can find it here:

http://www.crystalfibers.com/index.php?t...

If you decide to get more professional Macromedia鈥檚 Contribute and Dreamweaver are excellent WYSIWYG web editors.

For many beginners, the best way to start is with a free account on Blogger.com or a paid, but very cheap, account on Typepad.com. You鈥檒l get web hosting, easy to use content tools, and many other benefits.

But if you want to sell anything online you may need an e-commerce solution. I recommend going to someone like Clickbank.com or Yahoo Merchant Services at store.yahoo.com. They鈥檒l help you get your ecommerce site up and running.