Website hosting/designing questions - need help!

[woodpigeon4]

You'll have to excuse my ignorance - I know basically nothing about website building and hosting.
Basically, a friend of mine bought a domain name from a company called sarnold. The domain is (his name).co.uk, and can be managed through the sarnold login page. However, the interface is terrible, and it doesn't really seem to give many, if any, editing tools - it just gives the option to upload files, through which I would guess you link them together - i.e. the homepage is one file, another page is another etc, etc.
I use wordpress for blogging, but I just have a (my name).wordpress.co.uk account, and use the web-based wordpress creator which is more than adequate for my needs, and would be perfect for his. So, is there any way to use wordpress to manage his site? I've tried downloading the wordpress files, and whilst I'm assured it's easy to work with, all I can find it a load of files that are pretty meaningless to me (I'm ashamed to say I've never installed a program unless it's a .dmg or .exe file, and therefore don't have a clue where to begin to install wordpress).
Alternatively, are there any other apps that can be used to manage websites, that are simple and user-friendly? He just needs to create a few pages, insert some pictures and some audio files, and that's about it.
Sorry if this makes no sense to anyone - I'm a bit out of my depth; he asked me about it because I'm the only "computer-savvy" guy he knows, and I'd like to be able to help him if possible,
Thanks in advance.

[scottmac]

I'm not a wordpress user but have used quite a few Opensource packages. You will need to find out if the hosting supports PHP and a MySQL (database). Normally you then type something like sitename.co.uk/install.php and go from there.

It could be worth looking at other hosting packages as they do all the transfers for you and some have a feature called 'Fantastico' which makes installing these things really easy, just a couple of clicks in the back end of the site

[iGoD ReLeNtLeS]

you can actually download wordpress and install it on his 'website' if he is allowed to run php files.

All he needs to do is download the files from wordpress's site, upload them onto his, view his site and he should be able to install it all from there without a problem ;)

[woodpigeon4]

I'm not a wordpress user but have used quite a few Opensource packages. You will need to find out if the hosting supports PHP and a MySQL (database). Normally you then type something like sitename.co.uk/install.php and go from there.

It could be worth looking at other hosting packages as they do all the transfers for you and some have a feature called 'Fantastico' which makes installing these things really easy, just a couple of clicks in the back end of the site
Assuming it does support that, what in your opinion is the best opensource package? I will look into other hosting packages for him, but I'd rather stick with what we've got if possible.

you can actually download wordpress and install it on his 'website' if he is allowed to run php files.

All he needs to do is download the files from wordpress's site, upload them onto his, view his site and he should be able to install it all from there without a problem ;)
Do you know of any guide which would tell me in simple terms how exactly I can do that? I tried searching, but the majority are really confusing :o

[iGoD ReLeNtLeS]

well he would need to know if he has php enabled on his webhost, should be able to find it easily on his providers site, if he does its 99% chance he would also have access to MySQL, if he doesnt have access to either then it wont be possible.

Theres a nice guide here :) http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Famous_5-Minute_Install

[scottmac]

Assuming it does support that, what in your opinion is the best opensource package? I will look into other hosting packages for him, but I'd rather stick with what we've got if possible.

Loads of great opensource stuff out there, depends on what exactly is needed, Joomla, Drupal to name just a couple. For shopping Magento, Opencart there's tons of others for different things.

The best package is the one that suits the need best. If it is just displaying information and updating then go with Wordpress as you are already using it.

To check if your current server has php, copy this code into a text file and save as test.php

<html>
<head>
<title> PHP Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
phpinfo( );
?>
</body>
</html>

Then upload and visit yoursitename.co.uk/test.php and it will tell you if it is there

[benzeman]

It sounds like his hosting isn't up to scratch. I'd go with the beta (shared) package from martfox. Its £40 a year. Then, use it's installer in cPanel (installertron I think) to install WordPress. Its really easy! :)

[Faz]

If you wanted to be really lazy, get him to make a wordpress for free, then just redirect his URL to the wordpress site?

[woodpigeon4]

If you wanted to be really lazy, get him to make a wordpress for free, then just redirect his URL to the wordpress site?
Ah, now that sounds like the easiest thing. How would I get his website to redirect to his wordpress? I would guess it involves uploading a file which gives the redirect request?

[Aaron]

Should just be a setting in the control panel of the place where you registered the domain..

[benzeman]

Either a setting in the control panel or upload an HTML file with this in it:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.the-domain-you-want-to-redirect-to.com"></head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

[woodpigeon4]

Should just be a setting in the control panel of the place where you registered the domain..


Either a setting in the control panel or upload an HTML file with this in it:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.the-domain-you-want-to-redirect-to.com"></head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Thanks for that guys, I'll meet with him at the weekend and we'll try that.

[Faz]

It won't show the url like

www.yoururl.com/index.php (http://www.yoururl.com/index.php)

when you type in www.yoururl.com (http://www.yoururl.com), it will go to yoururl.wordpress.com/index.php

Although I did think there was some way of making it appear as though the pages are on the main domain (www.yoururl.com (http://www.yoururl.com)), just can't remember right now.

edit: damn PHP, I meant index.html :P

[scottmac]

It won't show the url like

www.yoururl.com/index.php (http://www.yoururl.com/index.php)

when you type in www.yoururl.com (http://www.yoururl.com), it will go to yoururl.wordpress.com/index.php

Although I did think there was some way of making it appear as though the pages are on the main domain (www.yoururl.com (http://www.yoururl.com)), just can't remember right now.

edit: damn PHP, I meant index.html :P

You can do that, I think it is with the .htaccess file, again it's ages since I did anything like this but it's discussed here http://forum.boagworld.com/discussion/328/redirect-but-keep-original-url-shown/p1