any way to get a free .net or .com domain?
Nope. co.nr are free, though. Or something like that. And .com / .net could be free if you take it with a hosting package; they sometimes give away a free domain like that.
In that case its usually free for the first year.
I think some companies provide you with the free domain as long as you pay x a month for the hosting.
Only free ones I know of are .co.nr and .tk