>whats the best software to start coding in C++?
The basic two tools that you will need are an editor and a compiler. An editor could be something as simple as Notepad.exe, however, it's recommended you get something a bit more advanced than that. A compiler is a program that turns your C++ code into machine code, something that your computer can understand.

IDEs combine an editor and a compiler into one nicely-packaged application, so those are usually the easiest for beginners to start learning with. As far as free ones go, try something like Dev-C++ or Visual Studio Express. A popular alternative to Dev-C++ is Code::Blocks, which is slightly more current. However, your teacher will probably instruct you to download a specific IDE, so don't worry about it too much.

>I noticed my college use NetBeans which is an IDE which may be a start?
That's for Java. An entirely different programming language.

Thanks joeprogrammer, appreciated. Regarding NetBeans I think we may do a little Java also so that explains why its on the server.
Your suggestions for C++ will be where I start.

see http://www.netbeans.org/products/cplusplus/
it is lighter on resources than eclipse+cdt, and would be a good option for a c++ IDE, particularly on a unix/linux platform.

So they can incorporate both Java and C++ in NetBeans IDE?

Just use Bloodshed Dev C++ for C++

Download the newest (beta) version, not the old one

When downloading Microsoft Visual C++ it asks you if you want to also install MSDN 2005, is this needed?

MSDN is the help files, so it depends

its a big download and you can configure it to use the web help instead, you can always install at a later date too

Thanks mate.

you dont need to install SQL either unless you are gonna be working with databases

without MSDN or SQL the download (for VB) is under 40mb

Make sure to check Microsoft Update (there is a service pack for the express editions)

If you want to add msdn or sql later go into add / remove programs and it will give you the option to install additional components