Need an ISP?

An ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides you with internet access, email service and/or web server space. They can also sell domain names.

ISPs can be locally-based, although national and international ones are usually less expensive and more reliable, if they're available in your area.

Shopping around before you commit to a particular ISP is really important. Ask around, and also compare prices and deals online. A personal recommendation will tell you a lot more than you can decide from the ISP's website. Issues to consider are cost, bandwidth limitations, amount of space provided and reliability.

Need webspace?

If you use an ISP for your internet and email access, you may already have webspace assigned for your use. For a small corporate site, 5 or 10meg should be sufficient.

If you don't already have space provided by your ISP, or if they're going to charge you an unreasonable amount to provide space, you can consider using external space - that is, space not related to the ISP who you use for your web and email access. As with choosing an ISP, personal recommendation combined with shopping around online is a good idea. I use Hostingshop.com.au:

excellent aussie hosting & domains

For "hobby" sites, there are free services available which are paid for by ads. See retrokat.com.