I'm a g-ee-tar kn00b. I have a steel string guitar and want to change the strings because they are old and rusted, and am wondering if anyone can recommend me long lasting, good sounding steel strings. Also, I am wondering about how a strap works. Does it requiring drilling and screwing, or is there some other way of attaching it? Please help. Thanks.

Well I use D'Addario strings on my acoustic guitar and I think they are pretty good. So I recommend them.

A strap does not require drilling or screwing, you simply tie it on the front and back knob of the guitar.

There's a back knob???

On the back of the body there should be...

I can tell you what brand of strings not to use, based on experience.
1.) Ernie ball - stretch like crazy, never stay in tune.
2.) Fender - The number of times these bastards break is just rediculous. It was almost like clockwork to expect a string to break every Monday night for a number of weeks there.
3.) If you're playing acoustic, Martin is ok, but they loose their pizazz kinda quick, and sometimes break even when they're new.

Now the strap. It kinda sounds like you might be using an acoustic. Usually, there is only one knob at the bottom, and the other end of the strap you tie to the headstock with some kind of string. I personally found that to be quite annoying and sometimes painful to the shoulder, so I took mine to a local guitar shop and had them install a knob. If the guitar came with a knob for the other end, it will be either on the back of the guitar around where the neck connects to the body, on the piece of the neck that extends down against the body, or in a similar location as a standard strat. Any one of the three locations below.

as far as string goes, d'addario is very safe. I've been using nothing but D'addarios on my electric and acoustic guitars since i started playing.

D'addario extended play coated strings sound the best, produce less finger noise and last the longest. They're more expensive but it is definitely worth it.

D'Addario's rock. I have been using them for about a year now, and I just started using a larger diameter, which gives the guitar a nice Tony Iommi sound (I'm on an electric, and my strings are nearly as fat as those you would find on an accoustic).

as long as you don't use .17's on an electric :p

I like .10 for standard tuning, .11 for down a whole step. I was on .11 for a while now i'm back to .10. the guitar sounds way too high in standard, I feel like all my leads are on the verge breaking my eardrum from the high pitch

I had 56-13's on my electric guitar at one point, to tune down to Drop-B.

screw drop B. get a seven string.

Drop B?? What on earth do you need to play in that for?

Fooling around with Korn/Slipknot style compositions back when I thought they were good. :p

I didn't mean dropping the E down to a B, I meant tuning down two full stops and dropping the low E (now C) to a B.

I love Ernie Ball strings. You just have to be sure to stretch your strings before you start to tune em up.

On my acoustic, the only strings that I allow to grace its mighty fretboard are Elixirs. But I wouldnt recommend them for most people mainly because they're expensive.