[Tut] Domain, FTP, and MySQL tutorial

~~beer~~ · 21-02-2007, 12:58 PM

Note that this tutorial presumes you already have a hosting account. I personally recommend www.crisphosting.net

Domain

Right once you have your hosting account, you will need a domain. I recommend www.123-reg.co.uk. I won’t take you through the billing process as that’s easy enough to figure out. Once you have bought your domain, go to the homepage and click log into your control panel. You will be presented with this just simply tap in your user name and password that got sent to you in your email then hit your enter button or click ok:

You will be presented with something that looks like this. Scroll down and find your domain(s) and select the one you want then hit the modify domain button:

You will get something that looks like this. Scroll down and select the link that says change nameservers:

In the email that got sent from your hosting, you will have got 2 nameservers to enter into your domain account. Enter them into the 2 boxes as shown below then hit the change nameservers button then go back to control panel:

You now need to select the link that says manage DNS:

You will be presented with something like this. In the two boxes where you can see 66.79.167.236 (my hosting’s ip address), input the IP address you got from your hosting account. Then scroll down a bit and hit the update DNS button. Then all you have to do is wait for the domain to be pointed to your hosting account and that’s it. Hit log out at the top:

FTP

First of all, you will need an FTP client. I personally recommend SmartFTP from www.smartftp.com (you should know how to download & install by now). Once installed, open it and in the 3 boxes at the top put your domain in the address box, your hosting accounts username in the Login box and your password in the password box. In the port box put 21 if it doesn’t already have it. Then hit the little green “Go” button. You will get something that looks like this:

To the right of the window, there is a list of folders as you can see. There should either be a public_html folder or a www folder. This is where your website files need to go. Just simply go to the folder that you store your website files in, hit ctrl+a to select them all then drag them into smart ftp then hover over the public_html/www folder and release the mouse button. Your files will begin uploading. Once done you should see a list of files in your public_html/www folder like this Note that if you have both public_html and www, upload to public_html:

You should then be able to go to your domain in your web browser and view your site for yourself. Note that your main page (the one you want visitors to see first) MUST be called index this is how the domain finds your site. If it isn’t called index, all your visitors will see is a list of files and be very confused.

MySQL

Right you have probably had your site for a while and want to add some automated php scripts like a DJ panel or something similar. Scripts like this use MySQL as their database engine to store DJs etc. To make a new MySQL database, first log into your cpanel by going to www.yoursite.com/cpanel (may not work an all hosting accounts. You may need to log in via your hosting domain i.e. www.myhosting.com/cpanel) You simply input the username and password you got with your hosting account. You will get something that looks like this. Click on MySQL Databases:

You will then get something that looks like this. To make your new database, simply type a database name into the box where it says new database and click “create database”. You will get a confirmation message simply click go back when u get it:

Now, some php scripts come with install files to execute MySQL queries automatically but you will either need to edit the config file which will be something like config.php or input database details half way through the install script. Here is what config.php should look like note that I have put the username before the database name. This is required otherwise your script wont work. This also counts for install scripts. Host is localhost, username is your hosting account username, password is your hosting accounts password and database name is your username_databasename. If there is a table prefix, leave it at its default.:

If however your script doesn’t come with an install file but a SQL file, you will need to execute the SQL query via phpmyadmin. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the databases screen in cpanel and click phpMyAdmin. You will get this screen. Select the database you just created from the drop down list on the left:

You will get this screen. See the little link highlighted in blue that says SQL on it and query window under it? Click it:

You will get this. Paste the SQL from your SQL file into the window then hit the Go button:

You will then see a list down the left hand side of the page. This means that the query has been executed successfully and presuming you have uploaded your script files, you should now be able to use it. Enjoy!:

This tutorial was created By Lee Bentley. No attempts should be made to copy, re-distribute or edit without my permission. Thanks.