Setting up Apache on Windows XP Home

Dear all,

I've been trying to set up Apache and PHP on my PC running Windows XP
Home edition, and have been having certain problems.

I simply want to run the server on my machine for the time being,
accessing it locally, but eventually it will have to be accessed from
outside.

The bit I run into a problem with is during Apache installation is
when it asks for details from the DNS server.

[from documentation at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/platform/windows.html]
"Network Domain. Enter the DNS domain in which your server is or will
be registered in. For example, if your server's full DNS name is
server.mydomain.net, you would type mydomain.net here.

Server Name. Your server's full DNS name. From the example above, you
would type server.mydomain.net here."

So I presume I need to set up a DNS server first? Can I do this on my
home machine or do I have to register with an outside source. If I
have domain names registered somewhere does that mean they have a DNS
I can use?

Please excuse the low level of the question - I am new to servers and
networking in general. But any help would be gratefully
appreciated(and credited in my project report ;-))

Many Thanks,
Bonnie