Domain name help

[tinker]

I have started my own business and want to get a website to gain more exposure and credibility. I have a few questions about buying a domain name and getting everything set up correctly.

First of all what registrar would you suggest buying from?
I was just going to go with GoDaddy.com because they seem reliable but I haven't quite made up my mind.

I am in the process of building a new computer and my old one will be used as the server for this website and maybe another. I would like to get the site up and running before that though. Is it possible to host it on my current computer and then switch when the new one is finished?

And lastly, What are the benefits to using your own nameserver(i'm assuming this is the computer on which you store all the files needed for the website) versus hosting it on the space you are given by the registrar. Also if I were to use my own nameserver, it asks to provide two different ones and I would only have a single nameserver available?


Hopefully this all made sense and you guys can help me with this.
Thanks in advance!

[.Maleficus.]

GoDaddy is great for domain registration. That's where I registered mine (Arcane Systems).

Short answer: Yes, you can run it on your current computer, but don't. You'll need to install Apache, MySQL and PHP, and that's server-side software you won't need after the move to the real server.

Long answer: Dedicated servers are usually LAMP servers (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or WAMP (Windows version). That's it. They tend to have very little on them (just enough to keep it running) which is how you'll want it. Less background tasks, the better it will perform. If you use your home computer to serve and compute, you're running tasks that will slow server-side speed and computer-side speed, for you and your visitors. Just wait until you get a dedicated setup. I used to host my site from home using a Mini-ITX board and everything, but let me tell you, it's not really worth it. I have a 10 or 11 page thread documenting the process (search "server stuff") and you'll see the headaches I went through. Setting up the actual site isn't that hard if you use a CMS (content management system) like Joomla!, but administering it is. I used Webmin as my server-software, which worked great, but it isn't perfect. It doesn't have Sendmail on it (Linux email stuff you don't want to touch), so you need to configure MX records and accounts yourself. NOT FUN. I never got Sendmail to work, and when I had my site at home, I used a pay-for email account for my domain. I'm telling you right now, from someone with hundreds of hours into self-hosted mayhem, buy dedicated space. You get tech-support, everything setup, and it's cheap. Far cheaper than your electric bill will be. I recommend SiteGround (http://www.siteground.com). I'm currently getting a LAMP server with 750GB space, 7,500GB monthly transfer, cPanel, and Joomla!. I have unlimited subdomains, email accounts, and FTP accounts. $7/month. <- Awesome.

Name server is not the same as the server the website is stored on. The nameservers that your site uses are used to identify the IP of the domain name you've entered. That would just be called a server.

Any more questions, feel free to ask. I've spent a LOT of time sorting all the boring stuff of this out, so I'd be glad to help.

[tinker]

Thanks for all the info!
I looked briefly at your page prior to posting but I will definitely look at it more in depth.

Right now I would like to just buy the domain name so I don't have to worry about anyone else snatching it up. I'm assuming that I should use godaddy.com and the nameservers that they include. I will probably get just the one e-mail that comes with it but am considering the possibility of upgrade to the next level. Is there anything I should watch out for or consider before buying the domain and all the different packages and features that come along with it.

Edit: What did you use to design your website. I downloaded a demo of adobe dreamweaver yesterday and was planning on using that but do you have any other suggestions.

Also, I can't believe that you are 15. Smart kid...
(i'm 18 but 3 years ago I didn't know half the stuff I do now)

Thanks again.

[.Maleficus.]

Yeah, go ahead and buy the domain. Once you have that, you're set. Since nobody else can take it now, you have all the time in the world to play around with different things.

Have you decided on a home-based or paid-for server? Like I said, I really recommend paid-for. After doing both, it's a lot easier to just buy server space. If you do home-based, you'll need to setup the IPs of all the computers in your house (or at the very least the one of the server), configure port forwarding for HTTP, FTP, SSL (if you use it) and maybe a few others, get a DNS provider that allows you to have a dynamic IP (I imagine you have this; ever-changing IP, each new time you login it could change without you knowing it) because a website can only be found at 1 IP, and a host of other stuff. Plus, bandwidth is a huge factor. What's your connection speed right now? If it's ok right now, think about in the future when you'll have people using YOUR down and up time as you try to surf the net. It will slow do you and the visitors.

I've used Dreamweaver pretty in depth, and it's a pretty nice tool. Nowhere near as nice as Joomla!, which is open-source software installed on the server. It's a CMS (content management system) that allows you to easily add new content, change appearance, and has loads of plugins for just about everything. Media, admin tools, forums, you name it, there's a plugin for it. There's also thousands of free templates for download, so it can look pretty much however you want. So far me, SgtM, and Commando have Joomla based websites, and both of them will tell you how easy and nice it is.

Good luck with the site man :up:.

And also, thanks :). When I set all this stuff up, I had tons of help from members here (CrazyB, SgtM, Airbozo, and Ovride to name a few).

[SgtM]

Damnit .Mal.. Other than backing you up on the Joomla recommendation, I don't really have any advice to offer him now. + rep.

[tinker]

ok.

I'll look into Joomla then. Maybe I'll use a little bit of both because I'm pretty familiar with the adobe programs already.
I will probably do a little more research on the hosting but I will probably pay for it for at least the first few months so I can get my other system done and have a dedicated server. That will also give me more time to better grasp what all I need to understand with setting up a server.

I'll probably buy the hosting space and domain today.
And I want to use GoDaddy's nameservers right?

[SgtM]

I'll probably buy the hosting space and domain today.
And I want to use GoDaddy's nameservers right?

No. You want to use the name servers of whoever is going to host the site for you.

Godaddy will actually call you a couple of days after you place your order to find out if you have any questions. Basically what will happen is this.. You'll register the domain with godaddy. They will put up a page (automatically) on your domain that tells people it's been registered.

When you login to your godaddy account, you'll have an option to change the name servers. Those will be provided by your hosting company, but it's usually ns1.whatever_the_servername_is.com and ns2.whatever_the_servername_is.com. Within the DNS servers, they will point the domain to the IP address of the server that your site is actually hosted on.

So here's the pointing scheme all broken down.
Godaddy registration --> tell them what your name servers are --> records are created on the name servers, and then --> actual web server where your site lives.

Ha ha .Mal.. I actually contributed something! :P :devcool: :P

[tinker]

YAY!!!

I just bought my domain name.
www.groceries2go.net
(the .com was already taken:neutral:)

This is basically what I want the domain for...
I started a business about 6months ago where I pick up and deliver groceries to people who are either unable to do it themselves or are just too busy to get around to a sometimes bothersome task. I charge 15% of the grocery bill as my service fee so they end up paying 115% but don't have to go to the grocery store. Its a good business because before the website it cost me absolutely nothing to run with the exception of printing out several 100 fliers. It has done pretty well but I would like it to do better. I hope that the website will be a good place for people to find that my business exists, get more information because a flier can only hold so much info, and gain some credibility and trust.

Just thought I would include that background so you know what I'm working towards and what my goals and desires are for this project.

I did a quick mock-up of how I would like my website to look. Its pretty basic and will probably change at least a little bit if not completely. I still have to do all the other pages but they will look similar, this is just the homepage. If you guys have any suggestions they are more than welcome. The better my page looks the happier I am!

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6071/websitefk9.jpg
Click on it to get full detail...

I will probably be ordering the host space tonight or tomorrow because I plan on working a lot on it this weekend because its a 4-day weekend for me.

I know I sound like a broken record but thanks again for the help and there will probably be many more questions to come.

[.Maleficus.]

Sounds like a very handy business. We have something similar in our area, but with restaurant food. Place your order, they go get it, and charge a slight fee. It's been pretty successful.

Glad you got everything figured out.


And SgtM, glad you found something to say :D. And most of what I said was what you told me in my server thread, so +rep to you for spreading the knowledge!

[SgtM]

tinker.. where are you located in Ohio?

Thanks .Mal!

[tinker]

about 30 minutes west of cleveland.

why?

[SgtM]

Near Sandusky? I'm in Niles (near Youngstown) and I work in Akron.

[Airbozo]

BTW, http://www.bluehost.com/ is the host I use and they are quite reliable AND keep improving their services with no extra charge. They will even register your domain name for free as long as you use them as a hosting provider.

(I know I stepped into this late...)

[tinker]

Thanks AirBozo. I will look into them. I stilll haven't bought the space so you came just in time.
A few questions...
What did you use to design/manage your website and do you know if you can use whatever you want or do you have to use the programs they give you?
Also I was just looking around the e-mail and it looked like you had to use @blewhost.com on the end of your website name. Is this true or can you use your sites name at the end?
Thanks.

@SgtM: I live in Avon. Its about halfway between Cleveland and Sandusky.

[calumc]

Well screw you all with your fancy servers, I've got a free host :P
I'm on 110mb.com 5GB space, dunno about the BW and Ive never seen my site down in the 6 months its been up

[tinker]

man.
Another option.
That would be really nice because its free but I don't know how much bandwidth I would use. I would think 300gb would be enough but I'm not sure.
Also does it support e-mail?

[.Maleficus.]

What did you use to design/manage your website and do you know if you can use whatever you want or do you have to use the programs they give you?
That is what a CMS is used for (content management system). You can use any number of them (Joomla, Mambo, Drupal...). They are for quickly adding content and features to the site. They are server-side, so you enter the URL of the administrator directory, and do changes from within your browser.

[tinker]

Oh ok.

I have yet to buy the space.
I 'm still trying to compare different services.
The one AirBozo mentioned seems good because you don't have to pay a start-up fee. With the siteground.com one you do unless you pay for a whole year and I don't want to do that as I may host on my own server.
It costs about the same and I can't remember all the exact features but they are comparable.

[SgtM]

Want to try everything out on a temp basis? (for free) PM me.

[tinker]

Thanks for the offer but I think I'm just going to go ahead with it all because I would like to get my site up and running asap

[Airbozo]

Thanks AirBozo. I will look into them. I stilll haven't bought the space so you came just in time.
A few questions...
What did you use to design/manage your website and do you know if you can use whatever you want or do you have to use the programs they give you?
Also I was just looking around the e-mail and it looked like you had to use @blewhost.com on the end of your website name. Is this true or can you use your sites name at the end?
Thanks.

@SgtM: I live in Avon. Its about halfway between Cleveland and Sandusky.

I currently do not have any sort of site up yet. Got tired of updating it years ago and let it die. I only use it for email, storage and testing now.

If you have your own domain name, you will not have to add bluehost to the end. All of my domains are hosted on bluehost.com. None of them have any content anymore, they are just mail servers now. (without the headache of actually running the mail server)

You can use whatever editing package you like, then just upload it to your provided space.

As an odd comparison, check out: www.airbozos.com (http://www.airbozos.com)

Next time I visit Colorado, I will be installing a rivet of my own.

[tinker]

Sweet.

I think I'll probably go with bluehost.com
...probably buy it today and get workin on the final design and layout.
Hopefully I can get most everything running by the end of Monday.
I have no idea if thats realistic but we'll find out.

Thanks.

[SgtM]

From the hosting side, that's totally feasable. It'll take them no more than 5 minutes to create your account, and allocate space and bandwidth. As a matter of fact, if they have things set up like I used to, they have a template based on the packages they offer that will assign everything for you.

[.Maleficus.]

Sweet.

I think I'll probably go with bluehost.com
...probably buy it today and get workin on the final design and layout.
Hopefully I can get most everything running by the end of Monday.
I have no idea if thats realistic but we'll find out.

Thanks.
Yeah, that's a perfectly reasonable goal if you aren't hosting it at home.

[tinker]

I just bought the host space.
I bought it from www.startlogic.com
They had the best deal and were highly rated.
I ended up buying a year because all the sites had a set-up fee if you only bought a month at a time.

[SgtM]

I like how all of these web hosts are advertising terabyte storage and terabyte data transfer. It's pretty much telling you that it's unmetered, yet when I had my hosting business, and people saw unmetered in my packages, they ran for the hills.

[tinker]

that sucks.
Did you stop hosting?

Ok so I'm gonna sound like an idiot but I can't even install Joomla.
I'll tell you what I have done so far...

I downloaded 1.0.14.zip version of Joomla.
Unzipped it...
And then used filezilla to ftp it to the root file of my website hosting space (I also tried putting it in the public folder)
Then I went to my site through the browser and it didn't show up.

The only problem I can think of is that I am running on Windows XP and I used a .zip file while the server is linux-based.

I have no idea if that is the problem or not or even if that could be a problem. I'm just gonna keep looking around.
If you guys have any suggestions let me know.

I feel dumb.
haha.

[.Maleficus.]

Upload it, THEN unzip it. Then, in your browser, go to http://www.groceries2go.net/installation/index.php and you should be set.


Edit: Also, make sure you put it in the right directory. My root directory is /home/*username*, but browsers look for content in the /home/*username*/public_html directory. THAT is where it needs to be.

[SgtM]

Upload it, THEN unzip it. Then, in your browser, go to http://www.groceries2go.net/installation/index.php and you should be set.


Edit: Also, make sure you put it in the right directory. My root directory is /home/*username*, but browsers look for content in the /home/*username*/public_html directory. THAT is where it needs to be.

^^
What .Mal said. Also, I visited your site. It's still pointing to godaddy. Did you get everything updated yet? Remember, you'll have to log in to your godaddy account, and point your domain name to your hosts DNS servers.

I'll be on MSN sometime tonight if you want to chat. My S/N is in my profile.

EDIT
Oh yeah.. I did have to quit the hosting biz. I never got any customers. You can only pay $400/mo for a server for so long before you need to start trying to offset the cost somehow.

[.Maleficus.]

It's still pointing to godaddy. Did you get everything updated yet? Remember, you'll have to log in to your godaddy account, and point your domain name to your hosts DNS servers.
That's the problem (I was wondering why it was still at GoDaddy). Your host has specific DNS servers (nameservers, whatever you'd like to call them) that translate "groceries2go.net" into an IP address, which should be the IP of your server. Since you still have GoDaddy's ns1.godaddy.com and ns2.godaddy.com DNS servers at your domain, it's pointing to the IP of GoDaddy's "This page is parked free..." page. You'll need like, ns1.startlogic.com or something like that.

[tinker]

hahaha.
I completely forgot to switch the nameservers.
Well at least its a simple problem.
I probably won't get to do a whole lot more to the website until later this evening. I'll let you guys know how it goes though.
Thanks for pointing out the obvious. It was needed.
haha.

[SgtM]

Looks like it's pointing ok now. Transfer all of the Joomla files to the /public_html directory, and you'll be good to go.


H:\>ping www.groceries2go.net

Pinging groceries2go.net [68.178.232.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 68.178.232.100: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=107
Reply from 68.178.232.100: bytes=32 time=1011ms TTL=107
Reply from 68.178.232.100: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=107
Reply from 68.178.232.100: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=107

Ping statistics for 68.178.232.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 72ms, Maximum = 1011ms, Average = 309ms

H:\>

[tinker]

I dunno if thats right because I hadn't switched the nameservers until after that post.

But anyways...
More problems.
I switched the nameservers that was easy, but now it won't even bring up a page for groceries2go.net. I'm assuming thats because I don't have a default webpage uploaded yet.
So the way I access the page is by going to groceries2go.startlogic.com. This is also how I access files via FTP. I have never been able to get to the files from the standard groceries2go.net. So when I just type the groceries2go.startlogic.com address into my browser I get a page that says:

Directory has no index file.
Browsing this site or directory without an index file is prohibited.

If you are the site's webmaster, you can remedy this problem by creating a default HTML page with one of the following names:

* index.html
* index.htm
* default.htm
* Default.htm
* home.html
* Home.chtml

I think this is because in my stupidity last night when I was trying to get Joomla to work I screwed up the default files that came on the server. So i looked around and tried to figure it out and found in the utilities at startlogic a thing on how to assign the default webpage via IIS. It gave a page as to where to go but the page didn't work. So I'm stuck there.
I don't know if I made any sense whatsoever but hopefully you guys can help me out.
I hate when I have to help someone that doesn't know anything about computers and I feel like that guy right now.
haha
sry

[tinker]

a little bit of good news...

The groceries2go.net website is pointing to the right DNS.
It must have just taken a while for Godaddy.com to update everything.
If you go to www.groceries2go.net you can see the error message that I was talking about in the prior message.

[.Maleficus.]

You aren't using the right site for FTP. To FTP to YOUR home directory, you'll use ftp.groceries2go.net. Just like your email will have your incoming and outgoing servers as mail.groceries2go.net. You should also be able to upload files to your sever using whatever administrator panel you have. I don't remember what you have, but it looked like you could do it. If it confuses you, look into cPanel (http://www.cpanel.net/index.html). That's the server admin panel I'm running, and it's superb.

[tinker]

Ok now I'm using ftp.groceries2go.net for FTPing.
Its still has all the same files in it though as groceries2go.startlogic.com.
So I just tried everything over again and I got the same result.
I'm going to try to restore all the files to default and just start over.

And with the administrator panel I did notice that you can upload stuff using it instead of FTP but its much slower. I'm assuming there is not difference between the two except that(basically). The administrator panel doesn't really confuse but the part where I found in the link in the help section that showed me how to set a default directory doesn't work.
If I run into a complete dead-end I will try cpanel and see if it helps any.

I'm just gonna try troubleshooting some more and continue to look for tutorials and stuff for that litle Eureka bit that I need.

Thanks again for the help

[tinker]

I just spent some time perusing the Joomla forums and it looks like startlogic.com(my hosting site) may not support Joomla.

:think::think::think:

If this is the case I will either have to use Dreamweaver or switch hosts.
Even at that I don't know if startlogic supports dreamweaver.

I'm gonna call startlogic's tech support and see what they have to say.

[calumc]

They will support dreamweaver because thats just a page editor. All the joomla software is server side

[tinker]

ok...
So after sitting for 30+ minutes on hold someone helped me out. He was actually somewhat informative and helpful(wasn't expecting that). And even better he wasn't forieign.

But basically he said that he obviously couldn't help me install Joomla but Startlogic does support it. He said for it to work he had to enable CGI??? But he enabled it, it didn't cost me anything, and supposedly it should work now. He said to wait 15 minutes to make sure the changes he made took affect and then I should be good to go.
Hopefully that is the case.
And hopefully enabling CGI wasn't an obvious thing that I should have notice right away.

[.Maleficus.]

CGI - Common Gateway Interface. Just a way to connect software with the server. You should be able to install Joomla now, and if not, I really have no idea what's going on.

Don't worry about it being obvious or not, because it wasn't. I don't think you could enable it yourself anyways.

[tinker]

Finally!!!!:D:D:D
I got the install to work!
I haven't moved passed the first page though because I'm trying to resolve the getting everything writable and just those settings. Of course mine aren't the ones that are commonly unwritable, but they are still relatively well documented.
I'm just gonna search around for the different ones.
Just in case you guys ran into the same problems I'll list the things I need to fix.

Session Save Path: Unwritable
I have two things that didn't pass in the security check but it provided a link.
Display errors should be ON. They are off
Magic quotes GPC should be on. They are off
Register Globals should be off. They off on

And all the Directory and File Permissions are writeable so I caught a break there.

It seems odd that all the directory and file permissions are writable but my session save path isn't. I found a few cases where the host service just made a mistake and it really was writable. We'll see if this holds true or not.

[.Maleficus.]

You don't need to do anything else. Everything is ok for you to start the install. Just click Next to get to the Lisence page.

In case you wanted to know about the errors...

The first error only pertains the the save path. That's in case you want to save the install and finish later. You don't have a /var directory (I imagine it's /home/*username*/public_html) so that's where it's coming from. It's looking for something that isn't there.

The next set of errors (security checks) are just PHP related things that I wouldn't worry about. If you can continue with the install, it's not that important.

You'll be encountering some (I'm guessing) new stuff pretty soon, like MySQL, so read the tips on the side of the installer. They're very helpful for getting it setup.

[tinker]

Ok.
I went ahead and just tried to install it.
I got to the MySQL page, entered the username and password that I had set up at startlogic.com and it said the username and password were incorrect.
I didn't know what to put for host so I just put "localhost" because it said that was what it probably was.

I haven't really looked into MySQL much yet but I'm burnt out on this for now...
I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[SgtM]

I would maybe call startlogic tomorrow and ask them to confirm or change your sql username/pw. It should be set as the same un/pw that you use to login to their control panel. I'll be on periodically tomorrow if you want help.

[.Maleficus.]

Ok.
I went ahead and just tried to install it.
I got to the MySQL page, entered the username and password that I had set up at startlogic.com and it said the username and password were incorrect.
I didn't know what to put for host so I just put "localhost" because it said that was what it probably was.

I haven't really looked into MySQL much yet but I'm burnt out on this for now...
I'll give it a try tomorrow.
You don't have a database yet. Before you install, you need to create the database, and add a user to the database. There are no MySQL users by default, so you need to create a user and add it to the database.

And localhost would be right for this.

[SgtM]

Make sure you fix the sessions directory. You'll want to chmod it to 777 (write, write, write)
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/sgtm_usmc/joom.jpg

[.Maleficus.]

Make sure you fix the sessions directory. You'll want to chmod it to 777 (write, write, write)

That actually doesn't apply to him. On a home based, normal install Linux LAMP, it installs all the regular folders. His server (like mine) doesn't have a /var directory (/var/www is where the site would normally be, but since it's in /home/*username*/public_html, his session path would be /home/username/session_path, which he can't change, and it doesn't exist). As long as he continues the install from start to finish, it's fine.

[tinker]

So...
I'm still having the same MySQL username and password problem.
I have tried 4 databases with completely different names, usernames, and password and none of them worked. And there really isn't a whole lot of documentation on solutions.
I'm starting to get annoyed with this. I dunno if its me or startlogic or Joomla but it seems like there are a lot more problems then there should be. Its probably a combination of them. I will probably spend a lot of today trying to figure this problem out. If I am unable to I think I'll just switch to using dreamweaver and hope for the best.

[.Maleficus.]

So...
I'm still having the same MySQL username and password problem.
I have tried 4 databases with completely different names, usernames, and password and none of them worked. And there really isn't a whole lot of documentation on solutions.
I'm starting to get annoyed with this. I dunno if its me or startlogic or Joomla but it seems like there are a lot more problems then there should be. Its probably a combination of them. I will probably spend a lot of today trying to figure this problem out. If I am unable to I think I'll just switch to using dreamweaver and hope for the best.
Imagine if you were running this from home :D.

First, lets start with the database. Create a new database called "groceries2go". When you create the database, it'll add a prefix to the database (probably your Startlogic username). Remember the prefix.

Create a user for the database. Have the user be your name, and enter whatever password you'd like.

Add that user to the database.

Now move onto the install. When you get to the database part of the install, you'll need to fill in what you named the database (groceries2go), the prefix (whatever it gave you), the username (your name) and the password. Leave everything else as it is.

Here's a screenie of how it should end up looking.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l257/andypwnsall/joomlahelp.jpg

[tinker]

I can't imagine how hard it is to create a server at home.
Once I get everything done, I think I will just leave it as is and make minor changes. Its ridiculous. haha.

when I previously created databases it didn't put a prefix in there.
The database name is just called groceries2go.

I will delete the current one I have.
make a new one with the instructions you gave me.
And just add the prefix to the beginning and I'll assume its my startlogic username. I had noticed this being mentioned in the Joomla forums but didn't try it because I didn't see anywhere where my DB name was "groceries2go_groceries2go"
But its worth a try.

Thanks for the effort you put into this.

[.Maleficus.]

When I did this from my house, it was about a 3 month period before I actually got anywhere. There's a ton to think about, like the OS, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Admin software, DNS providers, dynamic IPs... Not to mention the lack of tech support :D.


Also, I just looked at my MySQL info, and my username also has a prefix. When I made the user, his name was "andy", but it also has my cPanel username as a prefix. My ACTUAL MySQL user is *username*_andy, just like my database is *username*_arcanesystems. If Vdeck is adding a prefix to your user also, you could be running in circles without even knowing it.

[tinker]

nope :think:
And the only thing I did differently from what you said is I made the database name "g2g" because, even though I had deleted it, it still thought the previous groceries2go database still existed and stopped me from making a database with the same name.

this is what my stuff was:

database name: groceries2go_g2g
username:andy9
And then my password...

I also tried going to groceries2go.startlogic.com which is where the host domain that groceries2go.net points to. I tried installing Joomla on that page and got to the same place, MySQL.

I'm puzzled...
But less irritated for some reason, which is good.
haha.

[.Maleficus.]

Did you try it with a prefix on the user too?

[tinker]

Hmmmm.
Okay.
I guess I could call startlogic's tech support and ask if they add prefixes to either the database name or username.

They should be able to tell me that right?

[tinker]

No I didn't because I'm not sure what it would be...

Would it just be the same thing: My startlogic username which is groceries2go?

[.Maleficus.]

No I didn't because I'm not sure what it would be...

Would it just be the same thing: My startlogic username which is groceries2go?
That would be my guess. SiteGround added my username for the prefix on the database and user, so that's probably right.

Does Startlogic have any documentation on how vDeck handles MySQL?

[tinker]

I tried that and it didn't work.
I have read any and all documentation they have on MySQL(almost nothing) and there isn't anything of any use to my problem. In one of the documents they said that they don't off tech support for My SQL anymore so thats why I haven't called them yet but I guess thats my only option now. I'll call them again and hopefully I get the same guy as I did last time and he can help me out.

[.Maleficus.]

Hm, I really don't know what's going on then. Definitely call tech support and see what they can do for you.

[tinker]

Yea.
I'll call tech support tomorrow.
I've got some schoolwork that needs done first though.:banghead::banghead::banghead:
Woohoo...

[SgtM]

Here's some info that is goin to be helpful to all 3 of us. Skinning your fireboard forum:
http://www.archive.org/details/Fireboard_Template_Tutorials

[.Maleficus.]

Here's some info that is goin to be helpful to all 3 of us. Skinning your fireboard forum:
http://www.archive.org/details/Fireboard_Template_Tutorials
That's looking like a great link :up:. I watched most of the first part, and it looked really helpful. +rep for the find.

[SgtM]

Hey tinker.. did you ever get anywhere with this?

[.Maleficus.]

Hey tinker.. did you ever get anywhere with this?
I've been wondering the same.

[tinker]

First off...
+ rep for the good link.


As far as progress goes I haven't made much.
To tell you the truth I haven't worked on it much the last few days.
I have be swamped with schoolwork because I was sick for a couple of days last week. Make-up work.
I don't know when the next time I will be able to work on this more but it is high on my things to do. I just need to set aside a few hours so I can call tech support and then use whatever they tell me to try to figure things out. Hopefully I can do that before the week comes to an end and if worse comes to worse I will knock it out first thing Saturday.
Thanks for staying posted and interested.
I will make sure to share the results as soon as they happen or relay any further delays.

[SgtM]

Good to hear that it's still on. I also found that siteground.com has some decent tutorials for Joomla. I just installed Google Adsense yesterday. Such a breeze. I'll see if I can dig up this one template site that I found. There were something like 1500 templates to choose from. Of course, they're all free. + rep back at ya for sticking with it.

[tinker]

I still haven't called...
Been really busy with school lately.
It probably won't be until Wednesday that I get another chance either.
Hopefully I can then work on getting the actual site up over the weekend.

[tinker]

I finally got some time to call the tech support for startlogic.com, but I got a girl that didn't even know what Joomla was. Kinda disappointing. She said that she would send a report to the proper department and they would get back to me within 1 or 2 business days. That means that it won't happen until Tuesday.
I'm getting antsy to get this thing up and running but I don't really have any other options right now. I will probably do some more research and troubleshooting sometime today or tomorrow and try to fix it myself.

[tinker]

It's been kinda a long time since I updated. I have actually been working on it. Surprise Surprise. I got an e-mail back from the customer support team's manager and he didn't really help much. I tried to troubleshoot some more but my patience wore thin, quickly.
After thinking about it for a while and researching what I would be missing out on if I dropped Joomla and just used Dreamweaver or a similar program, I decided to just go with the latter.
I've been working on it pretty consistently for the last few days. Not a whole lot of time but just off and on between other things I had to get done. Hopefully, I can get it done within two weeks. It seems like a pretty realistic goal, but things tend to not work out the way I plan. haha. Whatever. At least, it seems like I'm getting somewhere and I can see my progress.
I've also taken on another project so it may get in the way with this, but it's pretty small and I will try to make the website top priority.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Also late but my fave host is hostmonster.com 1,500 Gigs of hosting space (i.e. enough for a medium size army), 15,000 Gigs p/m of transfer $6.95 a month. Comes with everything you could ever want including shopping cart and credit card stuff so you could move to electronic ordering and payment over time if you wished.

I'd also recommend going hosted rather than self-hosted unless you want to spend your entire life tweaking your server. Also if self hosted every time your line has a fault your server is down.

Best wishes with the business,

Matthew

[SgtM]

You do realize the last post was almost 2 years ago right?

[nevermind1534]

You do realize the last post was almost 2 years ago right?

This guy has been posting lots of links to his (or maybe his employer's) site.

[SgtM]

This guy has been posting lots of links to his (or maybe his employer's) site.

I noticed, and continuing to watch out.