WordPress Installation and Configuration

Download and extract the latest release of WordPress.

WordPress is available from http://wordpress.org/download/ as both a .ZIP archive that you can extract on your own computer to edit files before uploading them to the server, and a .TAR.GZ archive that you can then upload to the server and extract directly, editing them on the server itself.

This guide will show steps when editing on your own computer and will cover uploading a little later.

Prepare a MySQL database for WordPress to use.

If you have not already done so, please contact support@eskimo.com to request a MySQL database with a password of your choice. The username and database name will be the same as your server username (sample: support). For added security, you should request a password that is specific to MySQL, different than the one used for email and others (for sample purposes: SamplPa$$).

If you've already done this, you're set to go. WordPress will use "wp_" as the default prefix for table names it creates in order to help avoid colliding with anything already in use. Check the step below for a way to change this if you have your own "wp_" tables for other uses.

Create and edit a configuration file.

In the main WordPress folder (default wordpress), copy the wp-config-sample.php file as wp-config.php. Edit this copy to set the values for your database, username, password, and host.

By editing a new copy of the sample file, you can keep the defaults aside in case you want or need to recreate these steps later. The first few lines are all you will need to edit:

<?php
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'username'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

The needed edits are:

• Replace wordpress with your database name (same as your login name, sample: support).
• Replace username with your login name (sample: support).
• Replace password with your MySQL-specific password (sample: SamplPa$$).
• To ensure working connections in case of future server changes and/or maintenance, please replace localhost with mysql.eskimo.com, which will always point to the right place.

The result (using these samples) should be:

<?php
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'support'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'support'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'SamplPa$$'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'mysql.eskimo.com'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

If you already have tables using the "wp_" prefix, also look for the following line to change the WordPress-specific prefix:

$table_prefix = 'wp_'; // Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!

Save the file (text-only, without special encodings like bold as in the examples shown here), and you're done!

If you've edited files on your own computer, upload the WordPress files to the server.

Open your FTP software to ftp.eskimo.com, logging in with your server login and password (real one, not the SQL-specific one). If you do not yet have a web directory, create one named public_html, and change to that directory.

Note: Due to differences between how Windows and Unix/Linux servers handle text files, be sure to set your FTP software to "ASCII" mode to auto-correct for this.

You can now upload the entire set of files and directories directly to this directory, or create a subdirectory if you wish with the same methods. FTP transfer should take care of file and directory permissions automatically when done this way.

Writing permission should only be for yourself (user), not the group or server, as PHP and other scripts will run under your own login id, and you won't want just anyone to be able to come in to change your site at their whims. Check the Other Resources below for more details that describe advanced edits that can be done in this way, keeping this bit of eskimo.com-specific security in mind.

Run the install script by pointing your browser to the "wp-admin/install.php" file.

If you uploaded it into your public_html directory wih the default name, this will be either (replacing support with your own login):

http://www.eskimo.com/~support/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

Or, if you're hosting a domain with us:

http://yourdomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

Following the on-screen instructions will lead you through setting both a name for the weblog and an admin-email address. This is the address that WordPress will use to send you a forgotten-password reset link.

You may change the randomly-generated WordPress-specific password to one you can more easily remember. This will be what you use to administer your blog. You can also change the default admin user to something you prefer as well.

Other Resources

WordPress goes into more detail in their Installing WordPress page, with information for installing multiple weblogs, testing it locally on other machines, etc.