Installing Joomla! on a 1and1.com Hosted Site – Manually

It’s been a long weekend, but alas I’ve returned with quite the spiel in order to repay for my absence.  Today I’m going to do a tutorial of the Joomla! installation process on a 1and1.com hosted server.  It will include some brief information on FTP data transfers, mySQL database creation through the 1and1 control panel and the actual Joomla! installation.

One of the reasons I chose 1and1.com was because they’re offering a nice little promotion until the end of January.  Six months of free hosting and $6.99 a month after that with a 12 month contract.  The only money needed to pay up front is a $4.99 setup fee.  Other than that it is compatible with Joomla! and also includes a One-Click Installation of the CMS, but I’d rather show you the manual approach, because it’s more fun.

What you’ll need.

• Purchased hosting at 1and1.com and the completed purchase and registration process.  (Please Note: Domain registration is not necessary with 1and1.com for this tutorial because they offer a free randomly generated domain name to access your content.  You can register a different domain at a later time if desired).
• A zipped copy of Joomla! version 1.5.x
• An FTP client such as FileZilla (Install the client before proceeding).

(Note: All examples provided below of unique user or database names have alphabetical character preceding the numerical strings.  These characters are what I’ve found to be 1and1.com convention, but cannot guarantee your unique names will have these exact prefixes.)

Enough talk let’s get into the setup shall we?

1.  Upon purchasing hosting services at 1and1.com you’ll receive a confirmation email with your Customer ID, which is required for you to log into the server control panel.  As indicated in the email you’ll want to go to http://admin.1and1.com and fill in the form with the Customer ID from the email you received and the password you indicated during the hosting purchase and registration process.

2.  Once logged into the control panel we’ll need to find the server’s FTP user information.  Without it we cannot upload Joomla! to the server.  Under the Web Space & Access section of the control panel select FTP Account.  There you’ll be presented with the user names of FTP account holders for your server space.  The FTP User Name is the odd looking string of numbers with the letter “u” preceding it.   That’s what we’re looking for, but to increase security you’ll want to click edit and create a strong password to be associated with the FTP access to your server.

3.  Lastly, we’ll need to find the name of your Host or domain name.  Since a free one was assigned to you by 1and1 you’ll need to click Domains under Basic Settings on the control panel.  On this page you’ll see your domain name (looks like a URL) in a list.

4.  Now open FileZilla and select File > Site Manager, click New Site and fill out all the appropriate information.  Use the default FTP Port 21.

5.  Next, click Connect and hopefully after a moment you will see all of the files currently stored on your portion of the server.  On the left hand side of the FileZilla interface you’ll notice you have the capability to browse your computer’s directories.  Find the zipped Joomla! file you downloaded and double-click it to send it to the server.  After a few moments the file should appear on the right hand side of the screen.  This signifies the file was successfully uploaded to your server space.

6.  Now, close FileZilla and return to the server control panel.  Next we’ll unpack the zip file.  We sent a zip file because it’s easier to send a single pack of information and unzip it server-side rather than send thousands of files separately.  This way we reduce the risk of skipping files during the upload.  Sometimes it only takes one file out of a thousand to make the whole thing come crashing down.

Under Web Space & Access click WebspaceExplorer.  This will allow us to browse the contents of the server and unzip the zip file.  Sadly, FTP Clients such as FileZilla are incapable of unzipping files.  Create a new directory folder by clicking the New Folder button in the top left corner.  Name it “joomla”and click ok. Find the zipped Joomla! file and right click it.  Select Unzip and select the “joomla” folder from the menu and click ok. The server will now unzip the file server-side.  Hassle free.

7.  Before we can start the Joomla! installation we’ll need to create a database, which can take 1and1 up to 24 hours to create.  Under Web Space & Access click on MySQL Administration and in the center of the page click New Database.  Give it a description that you’ll recognize and is relevant to its purpose. I named it something that reflects the website I’m creating.  Select MySQL 5.0 and give it a password.  A strong one remember!  Click Set Up.

8.  Now we wait.  It says 24 hours, but you can check back sooner and it may be installed.  Mine was up in less than a few hours.  You’ll know it’s been successfully created because all of the fields under the MySQL Administration page will be populated for an entire row.  The following example information is FAKE and is used to help you identify important information to be used during the Joomla! installation process.

• Database Name – db123456789
• User Name – dbo123456789
• Host Name – db1234.random.net

9.  After you’ve found this information you’re ready to go, BUT WAIT!  We need to redirect the main domain to look into the joomla folder.  So when you type in your URL the server will redirect you to the joomla site that is stored in your joomla folder.  On the control panel select Domains under Basic Settings.  Check the box next to your domain and click the Destination drop-down menu and select Edit Destination. Go to the Existing Directory combo box found under the Home Directory area of the page.  Drop it down and select the folder ”/joomla” and click ok.

10.  Wait a few moments and type your URL or domain address in the address bar of your browser and await the installation prompt of Joomla!

11.  Everything is fairly straight forward.

• Language | Select your language.
• Pre-Installation Check | Verify that 1and1 offers compatible servers.  A few options will be tagged Red; Display Errors and Register Globals.  These will appear in red because 1and1 has a PHP 4.0 / 5.0 installation conflict, but it should not affect your Joomla! installation.
• License | Select I Agree.
• Database | Now refer to the unique names mentioned in Step 8 of this tutorial.
  • Select mySQL for the database type
  • Host Name: Your unique name (db1234.random.net)
  • User Name: (dbo123456789)
  • Password: The password you set for the database
  • Database Name: (db123456789)
  • Lastly, select Advanced at the bottom of the page and create a different prefix for your tables to use.  A bad example would be abc_ but don’t forget the underscore.  This will help prevent hackers from messing with your data because they will likely know the default jos_ prefix.
• FTP Configuration | Select No and leave the rest blank
• Configuration | Create a site name (can be altered later), fill in information for the site’s SuperAdmin account, and finally click Install Sample Data (this will put sample info into the Joomla! site, which will help you understand where information is displayed on the front-end versus the back-end of the site.
• Finish | You’re done, but…

12.  Go back into either FileZilla or the WebspaceExplorer and delete the installation folder in the joomla directory.  Either way Joomla! won’t let you continue to the admin panel until you do so.  Then your site is ready to be configured.

Go to your “site address”/administrator and have fun.  Happy creating!!!

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