Fighter equipment

Armor

I'd recommend going with the best armor you can find without sacrificing your dex bonus. If your dex is 1 or less, that means Full Plate. If your dexterity is 2 or 3 and you should be wearing breastplate. If you've got a Dex bonus of +4 for some reason go with a Chain Shirt.

Weapons

Defensive

A heavy shield with a longsword (4.5+STRMOD average damage 19-20 x2 crit) is your best combination here. If you plan on being defensive, Improved Shield Bash and a spiked shield is a must. If you need a slightly better weapon, pay a feat to use the Exotic Weapon Proficiency with bastard sword (5.5+STRMOD average damage w/ 19-20 X2 crit).

Offensive

The best offensive weapons are two-handed. It allows you to add 1 and 1/2 of your strength to an already powerful weapon. My favorite is the greatsword (7+(StrMod*1.5) average X2 19-20 Crit), but the greataxe is also nice (6.5+(StrMod*1.5) average X3 Crit).

However, the advantages of two-handed weapons shrink away as you gain access to more powerful kinds of equipment (DDO is a Monty Haul game, after all). A giant-bane longsword and greatsword both do an extra 2d6 to that particular enemy, so the raw weapon damage is only a small portion of the total damage output. Plus, wielding two-handed means you can't use a shield. At lower levels you are giving up a +2 AC bonus a heavy shield provides, but once you're 6th level and start finding items like a +3 Heavy Steel Shield of Fire Resistance (which would provide a +5 AC bonus plus fire resistance) you are giving up a lot of protection to swing with both hands.

Therefore, use two-handed at low levels if you want, but don't invest feats on improving them, because you'll eventually want to switch to magic longsword and magic shield.

Additional Tips

Try to carry two weapon types at all times, such as a slashing weapon like a longsword, and a Bludgeoning weapon like a club. If you come across Slimes, Oozes, and Skeletons, you will need a bludgeoning weapons, as slashing has little effect or splits the mob in two. Likewise, zombies and mostly everything else takes damage from slashing type weapons. There hasn't been anything to support carrying piercing weapons, other than they tend to have better crits.

Rust monsters are a fighter's worst enemy. Try to carry wooden weapons, like a club, and wooden versions of your shield. The Rust monsters have a spray that tends to damage metal objects, so it's best to face them with wooden weapons and shields.