Hi. I am Sid.
I am new here but I know a lot about this field. Been building website since early 2004.
This website offers a lot of help but here is what I know from my personal experience.1.
A domain name. I go through
http://www.godaddy.com. I have use other companies before but I like this one the BEST because of their excellent customer service. I have been a member with them for over 3 years now.
2.
A hosting account. You need a place to put your website on the web at. I also use Go Daddy for this as well.
Basically, all you need can be found at
http://www.godaddy.com. I am more advance in the field and don't use all their options but for a newbie, they can help you out a lot.
For More Advance Users:
3.
HTML Editor. Like Dreamweaver, CoffeeCup HTML Editor, Advance Version of Notepad, and ect.
4.
FTP Program. Like FTP Eplorer, FileZilla, Cute FTP, and ect.
These are the basics. There are other programs that are nice to have as well like image editors, script creators, and ect. There are too many to list.
I hope this helps out.
Sid