real basic question...

[uny2bld]

That's what I have been trying to say all along.. I tried that several times and it doesn't work.  Is it bc of my hosting provider?  They have me using a temporary site before I transfer everything over to the real site.  i didn't ask for it - that's jus what they do...

This is what it looks like if you go to my webpage:



And this is what it looks like if I type "install.php" at the end:

[iaccountant]

Think of the URL path as the way to the server directory where the files are stored. It is no different from a Windows folder structure.

If I have it right, your domain path is http://www.yourdomainname.cloudaccess.com

Now when you install SMF, IF you want it to be the first thing that pops up when a visitor comes, then you'd install the forum in the root directory on your server.

Every browser looks for an index file first, so a visitor would see (once properly installed) a url that looks like this

http://www.yourdomainname.cloudaccess.com/index.php  (don't bother following this link, it goes nowhere), and they see the  forum log in page in their browser

IF you want some kind of front page that the visitor sees first, then install SMF in a forum directory on your server (which you would have to create on the server), and link to the /forum/index.php file directly via a menu link from that page

Your visitor will see this in their browser bar

http://www.yourdomainname.cloudaccess.com/forum/index.php   and see the log in page in their browser

Wherever you install the installation package, say in a forum directory, (meaning create the folder first) you would point your browser to the install file, like this

http://www.yourdomainname.cloudaccess.com/forum/install.php

When you do, you will see the installation page where you can finalize the installation.

[uny2bld]

This is where I installed it which I thought was the root...

[Arantor]

Nope, httpdocs is the bit that will contain your web files (your account does more than just serve a website), so you need to put all the files in there.

You can either make it the whole site (put it in the root without any extra folders, so httpdocs/index.php is the main index.php file) or you can put in a subfolder (like httpdocs/smf/index.php) depending on what you're trying to do.

[uny2bld]

OMG!  It looks like I finally did it with lots and lots of help... 

I tried putting the files in there like Arantor said but it didn't work teh way I thought it would so then I thought I would just rename the "smf_2-0-5_install" directory to "Forums" then tried the hyperlink I made for it and it looks like it worked...

[uny2bld]

now it says the webpage cannot be displayed when I try to go to step #3

[uny2bld]

I figured it out... I tried to have it create it's own directory and it seemed to work but then I realized my control pannel lists it so I used that and finished the install.

I actually have a forum now... what takes some 5 minutes took me 10 hours - lol

That's ok though.  I learned a lot especially since I knew absolutely nothing before.

Thanks everyone for the help!