Wordpress instalation on Plusnet Webspace

[#1]

Hi, sorry if I could find the answer elsewhere. I'm a relative newby to hosting. I have a temporary website on Wordpress.com which I wish to transfer to my plusnet webspace. I have a domain name which I would want to point to the Plusnet webspace in due course. I have access to CCGI on Plusnet and have set up a MySQL database. But I'm stuck. I have downloaded the latest version of Wordpress and the Wordpress template I wish to use and have exported a copy of my Wordpress.com website. But now I'm stumped. Where do I load the various files to - and how ? What file permissions are required ? How do I point my domain name to the Plusnet workspace ?
I'm sure these questions must have been asked many times before but I can't find an idiots guide, all the answers appear to assume a level of knowledge which I don't have.
Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
Many thanks

[#2]

Based on Moving to a Self-Hosted Wordpress Site I think you need to install and set up WordPress in your ccgi webspace first. To do this...
If you currently access your ccgi space as http://ccgi.username.plus.com, that URL will take you to the /public folder in your webspace. If you want to install WordPress in its own folder, eg /wordpress, create that folder in /public. It's web address will then be http://ccgi.username.plus.com/wordpress. Folder file permissions should be 755, and any files in the folders 644. FTP programs will generally get these right.
I assume you downloaded the latest version of WordPress as a .zip or .gz file. You need to extract the files on your PC, then upload them to /public/wordpress in your ccgi space. Make sure text files transfer as ASCII, images as binary. Then follow the configuration instructions on the WordPress website to get it set up. Once set up I think you can then install a new theme (the one you want to use).
I think the final step is to import the database you exported from your wordpress.com site.
David

[#3]

Thank you. I'll give it a try when I can and let you know how I get on.  I assume that once set up properly I can then get my existing domain name to point to the http://ccgi.username.plus.com/wordpress webspace (or is there a separate sub-folder for each different website I want to set up with Wordpress ?)
Thanks again for your help.

[#4]

Is your domain already hosted by Plusnet? If not you'll need to use the Domain Names panel on the portal to get that set up. Then DNS needs to be set up to point the domain to the ccgi server.
You'll then need to raise a support ticket to get the domain aliased to ccgi.username.plus.com so that the server knows where to find your files. That will mean www.yourdomain.co.uk points to the same files as ccgi.username.plus.com. www.yourdomain.co.uk/wordpress would then serve the same (index.php) file as ccgi.username.plus.com/wordpress does.
Whilst your site homepage will display OK, you will find all links change the URL in the browser address bar to ccgi.username... style - which is not what you'll want. To correct that go into the WordPress Dashboard/Settings and change the URLs shown to domain equivalents.
If you decide that you don't want "/wordpress" to appear in the domain-based site URL some .htaccess sorcery will be needed. Perhaps best to leave that for later.
David

[#5]

Help please. After a long run-around with PlusNet support I was eventually told I could load all of my Wordpress files into my htdocs area. Didn't seem right but that's what they told me. So, I'm Ftp'ing the Wordpress folder that I have on my PC having extracted the data from the zip file that I downloaded from Wordpress.org (ver 4.2.2). Now most of the files seem to be transferrig across to the new htdocs/wordpress folder I created. However some files are saying "Failed Internal Error failed to convert the data to a format that the server is able to process" now its mainly .png, .gif and .css files that this is happening to - but not all of them ! So, it will upload some .png files but not others ! I'm at a loss as to what to do.
Also when it got to the end of the uploading it said it lost contact with the server - but all seems to be OK. How will I know exactly what files it has not correctly uploaded ? Will I have to delete everything and try again ?  I'm using CoffeeCup Free FTP
It seems to have written folders with Permission 755 and files with Permission 644 - so at least something has worked OK ! 
Will I be able to connect the Wordpress program to my MySQL database that I've created on plus.net ?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Brian

[#6]

I'm puzzled why you have a /htdocs folder in your ccgi webspace. Is it located within /public?
FTP transfers of any image and CSS files shouldn't generate errors. Image files should be transferred as 'binary' with no conversion whatsoever. CSS files should be transferred as 'ASCII' (text). What file transfer options have been set in CoffeeCup Free? I would think it prudent to repeat any error transfers to eliminate the error. If you don't know which files were affected, doing everything again may be safest.
Dropping the connection to the server a short while after transfer finishes is probably normal. Does it reconnect if you do another transfer?
You should be able to connect your WordPress installation to the MySQL database you created. You will need the database name, your ccgi username, the database password you chose when you created it and the MySQL host name which is sql5c51a.megasqlservers.eu . The WordPress set-up process will request these when you go through it.
David

[#7]

David
I sent a follow up question to Support following your email querying the location of the Wordpress files. Still awaiting a response from them !
I can see the Wordpress files when I access the Wordpress folder in htdocs from my browser and can edit files but can't run anything. I've updated the wp_config file with my MySQL database details but that doesn't seem to help. Also the config file is asking to enter various Authentication Keys and Salts - I have no idea what these are.
I'm really sorry but what should be a simple job of getting Wordpress working (which I'm sure has been done thousands of times) appears to have become an almighty job with PlusNet basically wiping their hands of the whole thing.
Any help would be appreciated as I'm really at a loss what to do next.
Thanks
Brian

[#8]

Response received and they agreed they had given incorrect advice. 
Now loaded Wordpress onto /public/wordpress using Filezilla. No problems. 
So far so good. Now, how do I now access the files to install Wordpress ?  If I go to ccgi.username.plus.com I just get a message no webpages loaded. If I try /public or /public/wordpress it says it cannot load those pages.
I'm at a loss. Please help.
Many thanks
Brian

[#9]

Glad to hear your files are now on the correct server.
Have you tried accessing the Wordpress installation at http://ccgi.username.plus.com/wordpress?

[#10]

The only combination I hadn't tried before ! All working fine now. I have installed Wordpress, connected with my MySQL and uploaded my old site to the new workspace.
My only problem now is to do with something within Wordpress so I'll start annoying their forums rather than this one. 
A very big thank you for helping me out. Once I'm fully up and running I'll try and produce a step by step guide as to how to get set up so that others don't have the same problems as I had.
Thanks again
Brian

[#11]

I'd love your step by step guide. I know nothing about hosting and would like to install a wordpress site on my free plusnet webspace - is it possible, do I need CGI? (don't even really know what that is?!). I have googled and searched and so far all I've managed to do is download the wordpress zip file. (I have a free wordpress blog at the minute but want to upgrade to a website and realised I have space with my plusnet account)
thanks
Janet

[#12]

When I click on my web address (that is listed in my account settings) I get the following
The requested URL /plusnet/www.rossjordan.plus.com was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
What does that mean?

[#13]

Unfortunately WordPress can't be used on basic (Homepages) webspace. It needs support for a dynamic programming language PHP and database MySQL neither of which are accessible on Homepages.
As you guessed you need a CGI server to run WordPress. CGI means Common Gateway Interface which is a protocol by which the server passes browser requests for dynamic content to PHP, and receives the answer. The server then returns that to your browser.. Plusnet no longer provide access to a CGI server for customers who don't  already have it.
I'm not sure where you looked up your website URL, but it should be http://www.rossjordan.plus.com. This displays a Plusnet holding page at the moment.
David

[#14]

Yes, I clicked through to that link...but I also went to my account details where it shows I have standard webspace. I get this in the details
View your Webstats
The following domains are hosted on your PlusNet account. Choose a domain from the list below and enter your username and password in the popup window that appears. For more information on the graphs and statistics, please see below.
www.rossjordan.plus.com
and when I click that link (www.rossjordan.plus.com) I get the error message.
The only other option on that page is to 'deactivate' my webspace which I presume I don't want to do, presumably I want it as it is, ie activated?

[#15]

...aside from all that, plusnet webspace doesn't look as though it's either user friendly or what I need to host a Wordpress site anyway so I guess plusnet website hosting is not for me!