Self-Hosting and Wordpress. Tutorial 1

Margaret VassICT Curriculum Support Officer

Falkirk Council Education Services

Some Background Information

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•Wordpress.com and Edublogs.org are sites that have been set up to allow people to create free hosted blogs.

•They allow you to put together bits and pieces that will be stored and viewed from their servers.

•They decide which plugins you use, whether you can add html code, what you can add to your sidebar, themes for your blog etc

•BUT if you self-host, that removes these limitations and you are free to add whatever compatible add-ons you find.

Finding a Web Host

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•An example of a web host is http://www.ilovethenet.co.uk/

•The CPanel is where you control what happens.

•The Fantastico program will install any number of programs for you, so you actually have very little to do

•Fantastico automatically controlls everything for you behind the scenes at installation time.

Getting Started with ilovethenet.co.uk

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Click on the Plan details icon

Choosing Your Plan

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•You have the option of upgrading at a later date

•Once you have decided, click on the ‘Order a Package Now’ icon

Order Your Package

Choose to pay monthly or annually

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Click on the ‘Order Now’ icon

Domain Names

•You have the choice of ordering your domain name through ilovethenet

•Type one in and press continue

•A new window will appear to show the availability

•If you are happy, tick the box and press continue

Payment Options

•There is an option to pay monthly or annually

•In the next window enter your new domain name

•Leave the everything else as it is.

Finalising the Deal

•Payments to ilovethenet.co.uk are made via Paypal

•You will receive an email with your login details to a temporary url until your account has been ‘propagated’. This can take up to 24 hours

•A second email will arrive with details of how to login to your client area. This is where you can update your personal details

The File Manager

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You will also receive an email with details of how to login to your control panel. This is like your dashboard. Click on the File Manager icon.

The File manager

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Now you will be shown lists of folders and files in your web account. Click on the public html folder

The wp_content Folder

Navigate to the folder called wp_content and inside there you should find a folder called themes.

The Themes Folder

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Click on the themes folder to open it

Available Themes

The classic and default themes are there. I’ve added a third theme - mandigo