Webhosting Shootout – Installing WordPress at CartikaHosting.com

I’ve installed and configured over 50 WordPress blogs at CartikaHosting, and I can confirm that it really is a 5 minute install. But how do MediaLayer and Media Temple compare?

I’m a little old fashioned – I don’t like to use the installer scripts that a lot of hosting companies provide. Fantistico, Simple Scripts, whatever – I prefer to configure it all myself.

I find it less confusing and I hate the mystery behind the black box.

Cartika’s process is easy.

Installing WordPress at CartikaHosting

1. Go to WordPress.org and download the latest copy of WordPress. Unzip the file and expand it to a directory on your local box.

2. Log in to the control panel and choose the Domains tab to create the website.

Create a Domain or Subdomain to Install WordPress on CartikaHosting

3. Create the domain that you want to install to. If you’re installing to a subdomain, you need to click into the domain you want, and choose the Sub Domain option. Creating the domain also creates a directory on your server and an FTP path. Copy that path. (I use TextPad as my authoring tool/note pad/scratchpad of choice.)

4. In the left nav, go to FTP and create an FTP user. Give them rights to the path you copied from the previous step. Of course, you could be like me and just use the Admin FTP account which has access to everything. But if you need to share FTP with someone, use diligence and good security.

Create an FTP User to Upload WordPress on CartikaHosting

5. Time to create a database – make sure you write all this down. From the left navigation, choose Databases > phpMyAdmin Wizard. Create the database name, then on the next page create the database user and password. I always create a DBA user. Submit the ‘Finish’ button. Copy the database server URL and write it down.

6. FTP into your server, go to your site’s directory and FTP your WordPress files to your server. You want to grab all the files within the WordPress folder, but not the folder itself. I always install directly into the root of the site.

Subdomain Directory on CartikaHosting

Create your wp-config file

7. Rename wp-config-example.php to wp-config.php.

8. Edit wp-config.php. Enter the database name, database username and database user password. I always enter the database server URL too – I never leave it as ‘localhost’. Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/. Copy the block of code exactly as displayed and paste it over the block of similar code in your wp-config.php file. Save and close the file.

9. FTP the wp-config.php file into your root directory.

10. In your FTP app, right-click on the wp-content folder on the server and set the properties to 777.

11. In your FTP app, rename the index.html file in the root of your site to something else, like index-old.html.

Configure WordPress

12. Now go to your URL and you’ll see the Install screen. Enter a blog name (you can change this later), your email address (get this right) and DESELECT the option to allow search engines. We’ll let them in once the blog is done. Submit.

13. On the next screen you get your admin password. Write it down, then click on login.

WordPress Installation Screen

14. On this screen you login as Admin, and use the password from the previous step. Once logged in you get a message that you’re using the password supplied by WordPress – take the link to change it and use your own password. You can also complete the other settings for your user.

From here you’ll probably need to modify CHMOD as you install plugins. Simple use your FTP app to browse to the folder or file shown within WordPress, right-click on it, and enter either 666 or 777 to make it writable.

That completes any setup steps that are possibly unique to CartikaHosting.

Seems like a lot of steps but really, for me it’s fast and easy and very predictable.