wordpress and connecting to my webpage

[Curtis Thompson]

Hello,

Unfortunately this is very hard to answer – it’s sort of like calling your car mechanic and saying that the engine is making a noise and asking them to tell you what the cause is. :-/

Your ISP has plenty of docs:

https://kb.siteground.com/category/ftp-howtos-issues/

There are lots of possible issues here – for example, I don’t know if you are uploading to the actual site root. A user on a system will have their own directory that is separate from the actual web root where files are served from. You might be uploading to the former instead of the latter, depending on what the home directory is for the account that you are using (again – that all is not possible to determine from what you’ve said here).

Also – did you actually install a WordPress database and all of that? Merely copying up the PHP and other files won’t get that working – you need the database underneath and the install needs to be configured to connect to that db (where all your content is). You aren’t there yet if you are still seeing the welcome message, but that would be a next concern.

Sorry to not have a specific answer, but try their knowledge base – since we can’t see your setup on the server or the accounts, it’s very hard to advise specifically what the culprit is.

sitruc

[Camryn Barker]

Yes, I see why that is hard to answer.

Let’s see. I am not sure if i’m uploading to the root site honestly… I thought I was.

I just downloaded WordPress and stuck it in the ftp I created which connected with my Cpanel… I am unsure as to how I set up the database in wordpress… I’ll keep looking but I have tried several tutorials and I have looked through the WordPress site to see if I could find anything that would have to do with setting up a database with no luck. Obviously I am missing something and I am unsure exactly what I should look for to find the problem. 🙁

Is there any information I can give you that would help you help me find an answer?

Thank you for the reply.

[Camryn Barker]

Okay, So I went to NameCheap.com which is where I bought the domain name. I am being told by someone that I need to forward the domain to my ftp (or something?) for it to work. I haven’t done this and I’m trying to figure out how…

[Curtis Thompson]

hello,

to install wordpress, you do first copy up the files – then you go to a browser and hit a page on your server which is an install script, and it will install.

the best source for the steps needed is wordpress themselves:

https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

your isp (as many do these days) also offer wordpress installs, so you – depending on your hosting plan with them – you might be able to just install it via your control panel:

https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/

your first step is to verify that you are connecting to the proper directory when FTP’ing. The easiest way to verify is to first look at your site now and see what page is showing. then, once you are connected via FTP, you should see an html page that has the same content as the page you see online. you can even make a simple change to it (type your name in the html somewhere) and then reload the main site. if you see your change, you are in the right place.

if you can’t find the webroot when you ftp (read the instructions i posted in the previous message!) then contact your isp support and they can help you.

sitruc

[Curtis Thompson]

hello,

you’re mixing terminology. FTP is “file transfer protocol”, which just means it’s a way to copy files between servers on the internet.

A typical hosted setup is as follows:

Domain registrar: the place where you have your domain registered (namecheap.com, in your case). all that is initially is a record on the internet that says that you own that domain name.

ISP (internet service provider): the company who has the server where your web files are served from.

FTP: how you copy files to the server that your ISP is serving your files from.

So when you start the process, you register the domain name. Then you pick a hosting plan. Then, when your site is ready, you point your domain name to the server. This is done by adding DNS records to your account at the domain registrar. Basically you are simply going to add 2 name server records to your domain registrar to point to your isp server. here’s your ISP’s article on how to do this:

https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/

hope that helps!

sitruc

[Camryn Barker]

Hey!
Thanks for all the replies and help! It turned out to be something very simple.
I did not have my domain pointing to my host. I had to change my serversname to the account DNS settings that are in my account on Siteground. That did the trick!

[Valentin Paliiyski]

Do you have an index file? It sounds like your site is still showing the default one as you have not upload own. Also are your files under your public_html? Finally have you imported your database? If not simply create a new user and database and import it. Here are a couple of tutorials on how to do that Create Database and Import Database

I hope that helps!