[Tony201100]

Hi Friends,

I just registered with the site a few mins ago and I don't know anything about hosting a webpage let alone a complete website .

As part of the registeration I have created a test subdomain called test2011.host22.com. Is this a subdomain name or my account name as it was shown in the email that was sent to me after completing the registeration.

I will be designing my website using Joomla 1.7 but how do I host it here.

If anyone of you has used Joomla it provides a nice handful of templates which I will use and there will be a mysql database as well.

Can someone please guide me on this from the point of view of a complete amateur .

Thanks,
Tony

[ShocK]

Hi, this test2011.host22.com is your domain name unless you buy one, you can get joomla from http://www.joomla.org/download.html , but first let us know how much you do know, like can you use ftp?

[Tony201100]

Hi Shock. Thank you for getting back so promptly!

I am ok with ftp & I just went into my site to delete the default.php file inside the public html folder using ftp in WIndows Explorer. This was a step that was suggested when I navigated to test2011.host22.com.

I can download Joomla and install it on my WinXP laptop or does this site have provisions of integrating with Joomla.

I have this suspicion that I design the html pages using the templates in Joomla and use ftp to upload these pages to the public html folder??

Many thanks,
Tony

[ShocK]

Yeah you could design your own templates if you're a coder, much easier to download themes for Joomla, although Joomla is fairly difficult if you've never used it, drupal is similar and much easier to use, Just download the file , unzip it and upload into public_html, go to mysql in members area and create a database, use the details after creation to setup joomla/drupal/wordpress or whatever you choose to use (some scripts not allowed, see FAQ's in members area)

Joomla etc, comes with standard built in themes, no need to modify straight away, just get the feel of it first.

[Tony201100]

Yes I have heard of Drupal but a friend has suggested Joomla because of its fancy features.

I might sound dangerously incompetent but what are you suggesting to download, unzip & upload? Are you referring to the templates that I use & I just upload them to the public html folder? If so do they need to be zipped & how do I unzip them from the public html folder.

Do I need to setup the mysql db first before doing the above?

[ShocK]

You can setup the database now if you want, takes about 20 seconds, just make up two words and one password and it's done, will then give you a username a database name a database host name and your password that you'll need to install Joomla.

To install Joomla, download the zip file, unzip it somewhere on your pc, everything that you've unzipped then needs to be uploaded to public_html, go to your website and you will see the welcome screen from Joomla asking for the database details, enter and you'll be inside Joomla (backend/admin area)
It will come fully featured with everything you need, you can change themes by going to sites such as http://www.joomla-themes.co.uk/

As I say though, Drupal is easier for newcomers and very similar, here's a drupal site http://www.rdamsenieuwe.nl/

[Tony201100]

Hi Shock,

Thank you very much for all your help so far. It is appreciated with gold .

I have done all as you suggested but come time to upload the Joomla files, I get an error saying that the server is busy and to retry in a few moments. I have retried a few times with the same error. I can get onto the internet with no problems and I have no proxy.

I read somewhere on the site that the max file size that can be uploaded is 5MB. Joomla is 7.8MB unzipped. However each file inside Joomla is less that 5MB. For my attempt I chose to upload it using the .zip instead of selecting each and every file.

What do you suggest here.

Many thanks again,
Tony

[ShocK]

I always upload using an ftp client, are you using the cpanel to up joomla? Could just be that the server is busy at the moment; being the weekend etc. If you use an ftp client like the free filezilla program you won't have any problems uploading where the filesize is concerned; I think the 5Mb limit is if you use the cpanel way (never tried that way, so don't hold me to that )

[grpace]

Hi !

If you're using Joomla, save yourself some headaches and install Akeeba Backup for Joomla (from the Joomla Extensions Directory). It is a wonderful plug-in and will take care of backing up and transferring your site to your live server for you.

Also, if you're running Windoze, consider installing XAMPP on your machine. It is a complete web server, setup locally (as http://localhost). I actually use the Portable Version of it (from http://portableapps.com) installed on an 8Gb thumb drive, with my entire site there. You can then configure it to use your local Joomla installation and do all your development from there. Then, using Akeeba's Site Transfer wizard, copy your entire site to your 'live' server.

Good luck and have fun !!!