The Official Asylum Freshwater Tank Thread

[4WheelVFR]

Plantedtank.net - great plant and fishkeeping forum
Reefcentral.com - in case you wanna go salt
Monsterfishkeepers.com is my home forum
Aquabid.com - great for buying anything fish related, just watch feedback
ratings like you would ebay.

Tangledupincichlids.com - absolute best source for very nice fish although small fish stock is kinda limited.

Kensfish.com - great place for food and accessories
Freshwatertropicalfishonline.com - great vendor of live fish
bigalspets.com - equipment
aquatraders.com - equipment
msjinkzd.com - great selection of small fish and inverts
drsfostersmith.com - equipment and live fish
yourfishstuff.com - equipment and very cool 3d backgrounds
wetspottropicalfish.com - another great live fish vendor

not familiar with fishlore.com but fishgeeks is another good one for general fish keeping.

Being a beginner, your B&M is the best bet, but all the cool stuff is usually online lol. As far as equipment goes, you can sometimes score well at local places but online prices are hard to beat.