How to Install Wordpress with 1 and 1 Hosting
When I first installed Wordpress, I had a lot of trouble finding information that pertained to the exact problems I was running into. Once I got Wordpress up and running, I realized that it just wasn’t that hard to set up. Since then, I’ve seen numerous people on the Wordpress forums seeking help with the same problems day in and day out.
My web host is 1&1 and I’ve been pleased with the sevice I have. If you don’t yet have a host, 1&1 has packages as low as $2.99/month that has all you need to run a website (even your own Wordpress site) including your domain name. Having said that, 1&1 has their own blog that you can set up through the control panel. This blog is actually a Wordpress blog, but is extremely limited in features and options. I’d recommend going ahead and setting up a database and installing the real thing…………..and I’m going to show you how to do it.
For this tutorial, I’m going to assume that your host is 1&1. You will need the Linux hosted package to have access to MySQL. The first thing we need to do is set up a MySQL database. Log in to the 1&1 Control Panel under the Administration tab, click on MySQL Administration.
There you will click “New Database”:
You’ll be prompted for a description for your database. just enter something like “blog” or “wordpress” and click “Set Up”. That was easy enough, huh? From there, 1&1 will set up a database for you. Normally, this will take just a couple of minutes. Click on “overview”, and the screen will show you the status of your database, either “setting up” or “ready”. Once it’s in “ready” status, you are ready for the next step.
Next up is to download Wordpress from wordpress.org if you haven’t already. You’ll have to have a utility to unzip the file. I used WinRAR. The only file you’ll need to do anything to before you upload everything is “wp-config-sample”. Right click on the wp-config-sample file and open with Notepad or Wordpad. Here you will fill in your database details from the 1&1 control panel in place of what’s there.
With 1&1, you WILL need to change the host name from “local host” to the actual host address…………no problem!
Once you enter the details of your database, go to the top left corner of Notepad and click “File”, then “Save As” and rename the file “wp-config.php”.
Hang in there, because we’re almost done. You’ve already done the hardest and most confusing part. All that’s left is uploading these files to the server. Wordpress will automatically set up the needed tables on your database. For uploading files, I use Filezilla, which is a free program you can download from filezilla.sourceforge.net. Here you will upload all the Wordpress files to whatever directory you want your blog to be in.
If you want Wordpress to be your main site, you would upload the files in to the root directory (index/home/default/etc.). If you would like your blog to be part of an existing site, you would create a directory in the root and upload the files to that directory. AT the time I first wrote this tutorial, I already had a website and wanted my blog address to be www.antbag.com/blog. So I created a directory called “blog” inside the root and uploaded the files there. To create a directory with Filezilla, all you have to do is right click inside the root, and choose “create directory”. It’s really pretty simple.
Once you’ve uploaded the files, you’re ready to go to your website and set this thing up! Now open your browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.), and in the URL address field at the top, type in your site and add “/wp-admin/install.php” to the address (example: www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/install.php or www.yoursite.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php depending on the directory you uploaded the files to). From here, Wordpress will lead you through the rest. Be sure to take special note of the password that Wordpress gives you. You WILL need this to log in. You can easily change it once you’re logged in, but you’ll need it for your first log-in.
I hope this has been helpful to you getting Wordpress set up. Personally, I couldn’t find much information on the subject. There were plenty of tutorials, but not that explained setting up the database and how to get done what needed to be done in the 1&1 Control Panel. Good Luck.
pretty informative site mate, ihad some problem with wordpress lately, but i guess i made the mistakes , anyway i got it on again…lol, im just a week old in this business, so i guess i got a lot to learn, ill be coming again, cheers
Nice tutorial! I use 1and1 also, and have been VERY pleased.
Thanks for the compliments!
[…] the “host” that I have does stuff, it was really easy (it sure helped that I found a helper website too). After FINALLY getting a full version of Wordpress on my domain, the rest of the dominos fell […]
Perfect! That’s just what I needed. Thanks for this.
Your welcome.
So simple, so why isn’t it simple to find this out? Thanks for the great guide. Just one extra hint - the name you give your SQL database is not the name you put in the wp-config file! Your name is only a description, the real name that you have to insert in the file is given to you in the summary details in the 1&1 control panel after you’ve set up the new SQL database.
Tim,
That’s a good point. Thanks!
This is great. Thanks.
But had problem after uploading all the files to my host. When I tried to run /wp-admin/install.php its said Wordpress ALREADY INSTALLED! and need to clear the tables first. I did not create a new database since my 1and1 account already has a database on it. I just thought its a default thing. Not what do I do? Should I delete it and create a new database?
Hope,
The easiest thing to do is to create a new database. You can delete whatever tables were on the current database, but I would suggest creating a new database.
If you already have your Wordpress files uploaded, just re-upload only the “wp-config” file once you fill in the details for the new database. That should fix ya up!
I got 2 words for you….
ROCK STAR
Thanks a million. I was up and running in 10 mins. No installations has ever gone easier.
Thanks!!!
Ha Ha!! (’rock star’)
Thank you Darensta. Glad everything went so smooth for you.
[…] spending some time on the Wordpress forum. At this point I decided to write a tutorial, How To Install Wordpress with 1 and 1 Hosting. This tutorial brought a lot of traffic to my site, so I guess I was hooked from […]
Hey Darensta, thanks for this tutorial. Searched Google for “setting up Wordpress with 1&1″ and got this. You saved me a lot of time and trouble.
Thanks a million.
Hey Nouhad,
The name is Anthony, not Darensta. But you’re welcome. Good Luck!
Great instructions, thank you very much.
One more question: I had started a blog already using the 1&1 control panel. Now, having installed Wordpress manually and starting a new blog, I would like to keep the Graffiti-Theme from 1&1, but can’t find it in the theme-collections on the web. Is it possible to extract the theme from the old 1&1 blog? I couldn’t figure out a way to access the files via http://ftp.
Thanks again for the instructions
Ingo,
I don’t believe there is any way to access the files on a 1 and 1 blog, using ftp or otherwise. I’m not sure about the themes they have and if they are available elsewhere. Here is a theme with the same name available for download……not sure if it’s the same one. Hope that helps.
Hi Anthony,
thanks for your answer. The theme I wanted to use represents a tattered scrapbook. The header image looks as if fixed with scotch tape - and I had already spent a lot of time to prepare one that fits in before realizing that I cannot import it when using the 1&1 interface. That’s why I wanted to stick to that template. I was googling a lot this morning - I don’t think it is available on the web. But thank you very much, I appreciate your help.
Sure thing. I installed the “1and1 blog” when they first made it available. The fact that you couldn’t access any of the files or add themes is why I set up a database and installed Wordpress myself. Anyway, good luck finding what you’re looking for.
[…] das Ganze jetzt nochmal von Hand aufgesetzt. Eine sehr gute Anleitung für 1un1-Nutzer dazu gibts hier auf antbag.com. Das Design ist dabei allerdings auf der Strecke […]
Thanks bud. I just used your advice to set up my 1and1 blog… It should be live before the end of the day.
Great post Anthony, i do have a question if you don’t mind. I already did most of the things you showed us. My next step is to upload to the server. My question is this. I have the wise-FTP from 1and1 and when i connect i see a folder name logs, when i click on that i do see.htacces. Is that where i have to upload the wordpress file. and finally, do i have to upload just that one “folder” or each indivual file. Thanks much.
Hi Ed,
I’ll help you as best I can. I’ve never used the wise-FTP program. I think it probably works very similar to Filezilla however. Most of the ones I’ve seen were very similar.
I believe what you need to do is set a domain destination, and that’s where you will upload you files to. When you open the Wordpress file, you’ll see WP-admin, WP-content, WP-includes, and a collection of PHP files(as in the picture above). The best way to do it is to high-lite all the files together and upload.
Hope that helps.
Hi Anthony
I forgot to mention that i laready have a blog, the one by 1and1. I downloaded mozilla and when i connect i do see that htaccess. my question is, is that the root directory?. If it is, i click on it and create a directoy like you did and then upload wordpress there?. I appreciate your help. Thank You.
Ed, You have me a little confused! You downloaded Mozilla? - as in Firefox and Thunderbird?……..I’m assuming that maybe you meant FileZilla.
If you’re using the 1and1 blog, I can’t really help you with that. I don’t have much experience with it. I’m also not very knowledgeable about *htaccess*.
I would suggest logging into your 1 and 1 control panel and reading through the FAQ section.
Anthony,
Thank you for the wonderful step-by-step. It really saved what could have been hours of researching. I’m up and running!
Ed,
I see the “logs” folder on my server as well. It contains the .htaccess among 9 files in total. Although I don’t know what kinds of logs this folder contains (FTP logs appear to be one kind), it is not the place to copy your WordPress files. I copied them to my root folder , i.e. the one above the logs folder. In the FTP client, just highlight all the three folders (wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes) and all loose files in your local WordPress directory, and drag-drop them into the root folder on the server-side.
Ed,
I’m sorry, I missed the part about you having the 1&1 blog. I’m not knowledgeable about that either, so please DO NOT follow my instructions, as it may not work.
Adnan,
Glad to help.
Ed,
If I mis-understood you about the 1 and 1 blog, Adnan is correct. There’s no reason to go into the “logs” folder. The directory that contains the “logs” folder is your root directory. You can upload your files there, and you should be good to go.
Nice resource you have. I do have a question though. I made it through all your steps, got the WordPress password, logged in, and made some quick edits, but when I go to the site to see how it looks, I only get the 1and1 parked page, not the wordpress blog, which should be my main site. Should I just wait, or is there something I missed? Thanks.
Adam,
Thanks. If your domain is new and just set up, it generally takes a while for the registration to go through, and for 1and1 to get your web space pointed to the domain. You should be able to tell in the 1and1 control panel - under ‘domains’ if the domain is ready. It may take up to 24 hours or so…
Ok. I’ll give it some time. I bought it earlier this week and set up the easy one-click blog but found your site today and made the change. Under ‘domains’, it does say ready. When I’m in the wp dashboard and click ‘view site,’ I even get the parked page, so hopefully all it needs is time.
Adam - Congratulations! It looks like you got up and running.
I gave it a bit but became impatient and started messing around with files. And it seems fine now. For anyone in my situation later…
I copied the index.php file into the traffic.html folder and had instant success.
did you have problems connecting to MySQL?
i am migrating a WP blog to a business package account and even with a brand new db and WP package i still can’t connect! I am not that new at this, but i am baffled. I appreciate any help.
nm got it figured out
I was installing for another friend of mine, but I was doing the same thing and it did not work, once I tried again after reading tis, it workd!
Many thanks! You saved me from a boring bog-standard 1&1 blog (I mean the design….my content may still be boring) and a ton of time. It’s very generous of you to take the time to document this. Thanks for paying it forward.
Hey Alex, I’m glad you got it up and running.
Hi,
Just a quick question please: You say “With 1&1, you WILL need to change the host name from “local host” to the actual host address…………no problem!”
Is that the url for the site where the blog will reside?
Great article, by the way!
Em
Never mind my previous question. I didnt read well enough!
em
[…] comes with a load of documentation, but I did most of my setup by following the instructions on http://antbag.com/how-to-install-wordpress-with-1-and-1-hosting/ which has some good instructions specifically tailored for people on […]
Ouch that was painful, I just discovered that 1and1 put a “.” at the front of my password that got lost so if your getting stuck look for that in your password
This is excellent. Setting a domain destination is an important step. Thanks!
hi there, thanks for the tutorial… i’ve just signed up with 1and1.. and actually imported an old db from another host space.. the blog and all plugins were working fine, but now i’m experiencing a number of internal server error 500’s… some when plugins are activated, and also randomly when searching through the page. even the wordpress dashboard has some error 500 messages. on top of that the mange->posts screen is not displaying anything… besides that everything else seems okay. any clues what could be wrong?
Lon,
I really don’t know. I don’t have any experience with that, so trying to offer solutions would not be a good idea. If it were me, I would probably spend some time on the Wordpress Codex, and read up as much as possible.
Sorry I couldn’t be more help.
Help!
I tried to update WP to the new version, and I can not get my blog to work. Can you go through the steps I need to follow on 1&1 to update WP?
See 1 and 1 hosting does not provide the normal cpanel which has 1 click installation of wordpress automatically. Also no fantascio installer here. So a newbie who takes hosting at 1 n 1 for wordpress will be afraid initially to find that he can’t install wordpress the other way. So this information is very helpfull as this post helps install wordpress in 1 n 1. Thanx for much help. I would definitely refer this link after i upload the files for
http://bloggingtruths.com .
Don’t ever take this post down. I am always referring to it. Thanks for posting it, it has been a life-saver for me.
“With 1&1, you WILL need to change the host name from “local host” to the actual host address…………no problem!”
sorry - I am new to all of this - what form will this take?
my site will be http://www.29sunbeam.co.uk and initially the wordpress will be the homepage -
Thanks for your generous help
John
Hey Any
sorry - yes I had to wait for the database to be ready and then it had a host name for me to input - shouldn’t have been so hasty!
Having problems now changing theme, but I think I can work through it!
John
I had almost decided to change web hosting from 1and1 (which I love, by the way) because I could not get the Wordpress software installed. Then I found this posting - thank you! I have just installed the software to my 1and1 hosted website, and it is working.
Great tutorial and easy to follow. Again, thanks.
Rene
Anthony, thanks so much. If it weren’t for you, I’d be pounding my desk and screaming out “WHY WON’T THIS WORK, AND WHY WON’T 1&1 MAKE IT EASIER????” I’ve got tons to learn, but I wouldn;t even be in the starting gate if not for you.
We all owe you one, brother.
— Bruce, therockandrollfantasy.com
Great and informative post. A couple of recommendations in case you felt like updating the article.
“With 1&1, you WILL need to change the host name from “local host” to the actual host address…………no problem!”
You could elaborate a little more and say that to get the local host address click on the ‘edit’ button after the new database is ready. On that page it tells you the database name, host name, user name and password.
Otherwise the post is great and helped me out a bunch with the install.
As a sidenote: if there was an index.html file in the directory where you put the WP files in there the directory will default to the index.html file on the web instead of index.php.
Rylan,
Glad it helped you out.
On the screen that lists all of your databases, the chart names the database name, user name, password, and host name, so I’m not sure why you would need to click on the ‘edit’ button.
Ah true indeed. It was just more clear to me in the edit settings I guess.
I just thought it would help to point that out as i was initially confused as to what you meant by ‘host name’ and needing to change it.
Thanks again.
Wow man excellent Installation.
I tried it for my website
Thanks man!
Ash
[…] I found a nice guide on how to do it with my webhost 1&1. If you happen to use 1&1 as well, this might be for you. It provides a detailed guide to do it and it’s pretty much […]
Thanks for the step-by-step guide! I’ve just done my first manual wordpress install, and with your instructions, it went a lot smoother than it otherwise might have.
Cheers.
You’re welcome, and very nice choice for a theme!
Hi Anthony,
I have been wondering why the Plugin Editor is missing from the Plugin Management menu in the pre-installed 1&1 Wordpress version. I have now learned that this version is stripped of certain functionalities and that one must install the full featured version of Wordpress themselves. My question is whether or not I can do this and still preserve all the content and look of my existing blog, that is, carry it over to the latest full featured version of Wordpress. All I really want to do is put a site meter on my blog, but with the pared down version of Wordpress offered by 1&1, this doesn’t seem possible. Any suggestions! Great description of the installation procedure, although I hope I may not have to go through it.
With thanks,
Jocko
Jocko,
If you were to set up WP “the old fashioned way”, you could import all your posts, etc. from your current version. I’m not sure if you could find the same theme or not though. I’ve heard the themes that 1&1 use aren’t available elsewhere.
I am moving my WP blog from one host to 1and1.
I exported the database files from my existing site.
I created a new database on 1and1.
I imorted the mySQL export file to the new database on 1and1
Inspection showed that all the tables and data were imported fine.
Next I copied all my WP files and folders to 1and1
Then I edited the wp-config.php file changing the database name, username, user password and host.
When I try to run the blog I get this error:
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
* Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
* Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
* Are you sure that the database server is running?
I have rechecked all the info in my wp-config.php file and all is correct. I am sure the database server is running because I can access the database via mySQLadmin.
Does anyone have any ideas?
@Arnie - I wish I could be of help to you, but I can’t advise you. Changing from one host to another is an experience I haven’t had to deal with so far. Good luck getting everything worked out.
Hey Anthony! Thanks for this very detailed tutorial… I’ve had a 1and1 account for a while and did not know they were able to host wordpress until i ran into your site!
Im currently uploading all the files so ill keep my fingers crossed that everything pans out.
Thanks man!
I ran to a speed bump. I put http://www.mydomain.com/wp-admin/install.php but I get a 404 ERROR (The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.)
I checked to see if the files had uploaded properly and all files are there. Any thoughts?
Your help is much appreciated!
John,
The domain that your name links to - is this the site in question? I’m not sure, but the first thing I would probably check is to make sure that the directory structure on your server is correct, and also that your database is created and ready to use.
You may know this, but just in case, when you download Wordpress and unzip it, it’s in a file called Wordpress 2.3.2 or whatever version you have. You don’t want to upload that whole file, only the contents(individual files and folders).
Hello Anthony,
I had a problem with my hosting. They were not serving PHP files for some weird reason (yes it was a linux package). That was the root of the problem. But thanks alot for your help!
Now I need to find a nice template for it. Any suggestions where I could find some nice ones?
Thanks man!
John, is that a trick question? hehehe
Take a look right here!
[…] forgot to link the article I used to set up my blog. It’s here. Thanks to the author for an informative and well-written […]
Thanks for the instructions! The screenshots were very helpful. Keep up the great work!
Oh man. Thanks for the instruction! I was actually thinking about quitting 1&1 because their integrated Wordpress is terrible, and there’s absolutely no technical support for adding your own wordpress. This is going to help so much. Keep up the good work!
Thanks. This has been extremely helpful - I bookmarked it via del.icio.us ….
I am trying to move a Wordpress site to another host (1and1). All of the posts and all of the comments are in traditional Chinese (Big5). When I export the mySQL database and try to import it into the new database the import process errors out. I believe mySQL has screwed up the encoding during the export. Anybody know what to do? Losing all the data is not an option I want.
Another stupid question: How do I check to see what version of Wordpress I’m running?
A point of interest to users wanting to move to 1and1 hosting. I believe you will need to subscribe to the business package at $9.99 per month. The less expensive packages do not support server side includes. Unless I am mistaken, I believe Wordpress uses server side includes.
Dear Anthony,
define(’DB_NAME’, ‘database’); // The name of the database
define(’DB_USER’, ‘Username’); // Your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘Password’); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘www.ilovemyebooks.com’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);
define(’DB_COLLATE’, ”);
I’m still confused what I should put in the database bit.. is it the database name thats found on the ‘MySQL Database Set Up and Configuration’ page under database name?
& where local host used to be.. do I put the name of my site?
Sorry I’m asking such stupid questions
Owain
Yes, and the same page will give you the host name which you will use to replace ‘localhost’.
cool, its sorted. Thank you!
http://www.ilovemyebooks.com/?cat=4- If you want proof lol
Once again, thanks.
Owain
[…] I would like to start off by saying a little thank you to Anthony, for writing a breath taking tutorial on setting up Wordpress on 1&1 hosting. Without him this blog would not have been […]
This was very well written, thank you very much. Worked like a charm.
[…] subdirectorio que creé y al que llamé “/blog” (un proceso sencillo, más información aquí). Configuré WordPress para que tanto el programa como el blog en sí fueran accesibles en […]
Thx… so nice to see it spelled out.
How easy was that! You are a star.
Thanks mate
Very helpful information here! I just hosted a new site with 1&1 and your page saved my life in a crunch. Well…. you know what I mean!
-Jason
“Mindful Entrepreneur”
http://www.MindfulEntrepreneur.com
A few month ago I tried to setup a simple blog via the 1and1 control panel. It replaced my web page by becoming the default. I put the thought of a blog aside after removing that attempt.
With your easy to follow tutorial my little blog was up in just a few minutes and my website is still intact!
Thank you very much!
[…] on this site, as well as one of the articles that brings in the most search engine visitors, is my How to Install Wordpress with 1and1 Hosting article. I believe the reason for this is because there are many people who’ve run into the […]