FTP, WordPress...ACK. Please Help!

#1

Good Morning-

So I’m completely new to this whole website thing, and I’m utterly confused. Here is the situation:

I signed up with DreamHost last night, and I get an email instructing me how to set up my website through FTP. So I followed the directions, but I have absolutely NO idea what to do once I’m in there.

Is FTP necessary, or only for folks who want to set up their website that way? Should I just install WordPress? Can I even do that since I set myself up on FTP? GAHHH.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Tami

[hr]
And now it’s telling me that it was unable to download the WordPress installation files…? Please help.

#2

Tami, I’m only slightly more adept than you are. Here’s my very simple understanding:

You need FTP to transfer items from your computer to your website.

You don’t need it to install Wordpress, but you may want to add a theme other than default ones, and you do that with FTP.

Do you have a registered domain name?

#3

If all you want is a WordPress blog, there’s no need to use FTP at all. Simply use the 1 click install from within the DreamHost control panel to install WordPress.

Once WordPress is installed, you can configure WordPress from within WordPress’s control panel, which also allows you to install new themes and plugins.

Yes, you can install WordPress via FTP if you want to. You’ll first have to download WordPress from wordpress.org, upload to DreamHost via FTP, unzip the ZIP, and run the installation script.