Forgive me but I know nothing when it comes to web hosting.
My band has a site through register.com with uses WebsiteNOW! as a template and editor. It works just fine for the most part but I can only add text, some simple html and a few images. At this point I'm using a free image host to add thumbnails to my site but I'm sort of weary of free hosts, even if they do promice not to put advertisements into my content.
I'd like to link from my site to a forum, downloadable mp3's, images, video, and potentially use ftp to exchange files between other bands and our recording engineer. Also I may have a new site built and completely ditch WebsiteNOW! but that will be in the somewhat distant future.
I have no clue what I should or could do. As far as I can tell I'll need to register a new domain name but as far as storage size, bandwidth, this-that-andtheother I'm a bit of a dummy (rookie).
Any patient folks that could help me and make recomendations and maybe walk me through the processes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Trav

You can follow this steps:
1. Register your domain name. This should cost you less than $10 per year.
2. You might need at least 500 MB disk space with 1 GB bandwidth.
3. If you are not a webmaster then you might using CMS (Content Management System) so you can edit and add your website content easily. You might have to spend some money here to hire webmaster to design and install for you.

Do I really need to build a site since I'll just be linking to streaming mp3 image and video files from our existing site along with hosting a phpbb message board?

You need to buy a hosting package. Many hosts include Free domain name registration with their hosting. You can use the sitebuilder tool and free script installer like Fantastco to build your site.

I suggest you find a web hosting company that offer forum software and sufficient number of bandwidth. Other features should not be put on comment. We have some good hosts lited in our Best 10 directory. Some of them currently run promotions so you can get real good offer.

Regards

You will need to pay for hosting. But before you do, you will need to find a host that will meet your requirements. Streaming MP3's and videos will eat up alot of bandwidth.

To figure out how much bandwidth you will need. You need first answer the following questions.
How many MP3's and videos do you have?
What is the average size of these files?
How often do you think they'll be viewed per month.

Without knowing this, it is impossible to tell how much bandwidth you will need.

potentially use ftp to exchange files between other bands and our recording engineer

Most hosts only allow 1 FTP account, so you will most likely need to share your username and password if you want other people to upload files. If you ask real nice, some hosts may allow you more FTP accounts at a small price.

You can leave your site where it is now at register.com, but if you want a more robust site, you can use a CMS as mentioned above to manage your content. I reccomend Joomla