newbie with concerns and questions

[marvc]

I'm in the early stages of creating my website and have a few concerns that I'd like to post here.
I'm hosting my own server whcih is running w2k w/phphome to include apache, mysql, and php.
This will be the first site that I've ever created so bear with me if I don't have the lingo or terminology down pack.
I have an idea of wht type of site I want to build, how do I go about setting up the major parts to it, such as databses and access? Say I'd like to have a format similar to this one where the user sees the main page and has an option to become a member by creating a user account and loggin in.
1. Where does that user information go and how is it maintained?
2. Is this where I should already have a database created in mysql to hold this info or is it stored somewhere automatically?

3. What do I need to do to prepare for this?

From what I'm being told, this isn't something that can't be done by a novice, and that spenting hundreds of dollars on a class isn't really necessary. I also have books, but they seem to assume you have the basic concept of web site creation down, and that's not the case.
Any direction or assistance on these concerns is appreciated.

[oracleguy]

I'll try and answer best I can:

1) It is really up to how you build the pages but you said you have mysql which is a database program. You'd want to use that. When someone registers your page would access a table inside the database and save it in. You'd interface with the database via server-side code like ASP or PHP.

3) Try instead of going to an expensive class, try buying a 'for dummies' book. They are pretty good most of the time. But first you need to decide on which server-side language you want to learn. Or learn first

Try looking @ this thread for more on choosing a server-side language: http://www.codingforums.com/showthre...&threadid=1654