Moving to wordpress.org - am I installing right?

[ethelb]

I have bought my wordpress.org hosting and want to move a site i have on wordpress.com onto it. I won my domain already.

I have downloaded wordpress.org onto my hard drive, but when I go to 'open' it it is just a load of files, which when I click on them open up the download wordpress.org web page.

The instructions from my host suggest that I should 'log into my control panel' using their wordpress.org log in (which they have given me). But I don't have a control panel as I have no wordpress.org!!!

I realise I have seriously not 'got' something here, but what do I have to do to make it all make sense???

[nannynick]

Your webhost should have sent you some details of how to login to the control panel. That control may be under your domain or it may be accessed wia the webhosts webserver.

Wordpress.org does not host your domain. You should not need to visit wordpress.org site.

Once in your webhosts Control Panel you can then install wordpress.

Who is the webhost?

[wordyBird]

Yes, your control panel is the way you access and control the web space you bought.

Wordpress is indeed just a lot of files: you can't do anything with them until you've 1) uploaded them to a server - in this case, your web space, and 2) linked them to a database, by running the installation process.

It will all make sense eventually, just take it step by step.

Have a word with your host to clarify how to login to your control panel, and have a look here too:

codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

• it's long, but you will only need the bits that apply to your setup.