installation problem

I AM A NOOB to start with
uploaded the upload file into the root thing and i imported that file in the docs aswell and changed the footer as described in the manual and i am using vb 3.5.3

PROBLEMS
when i upload the .htaccess file to the root there was already a .htaccess file there (i am talking about the www folder thats where my forum is public_html ) so i deleted that file and uploaded the one which was in the upload folder
and i get this error saying contact webmaster (unfortunately thats me)
any one got any clue where i went wrong ?

and does any one know what that .htaccess file which i deleted was for ?
and do i need it back in there ? coz i aint got that file any more its gone with the wind :(

where do i go from here

my site is hosted on hostgator and they said they got zend so i got the zend version

if some kind soul replies , please bear in mind i am a total noob i installed my vb today for the first time and took me 12 hours to do that so please talk in english i dont understand php's and html's or any other languages

this is how the footer stuff look like when i go to source info in firefox

PHP Code:

<!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
    Powered by vBulletin Version 3.5.3<br />Copyright &copy;2000 - 2006, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.<br /><!--VBSEO_COPYRIGHT-->     <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice --> 


and the search engine optimisation by vbseo thing still not showing up in the footer

so is it not installed yet ?

Did you install the xml product file via your vB admincp?

yes i uploaded it from the admin cp

i have now deleted whatever i uploaded and going to start all over again
will give you guys a shout if it still doesnt work out

if some one know if there is a better and detailed tutorial on how to install
would be much appreciated

Can you remember what was in your previous .htaccess file?
Also are you making sure you are uploading all the files in BINARY mode?

the .htaccess file which got deleted last time is now back again for some unknown reason and it is here /public_html/ and this is where my forum is aswell and its empty

now i am starting the installation from start again

am i suppised to upload the whole folder called upload here >> /public_html/
or just the contents of the upload folder including the .htaccess file (do i over write the .htaccess file which is already there and is empty)

yeh last time it was binary mode
i used filezila to upload the files . do i need to use something else ?

can some one help me out this time plz

here is the screen shot from filezilla >>

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/9...eenshot4pq.jpg


shall i upload those 4 files in the thinggy which is open on the right hand side ? that is where my forum is ,from what i understand

or do i go one level up and then upload the files ?

and as you can see there is already a .htaccess file in there shall what am i supposed to do :(

or am i supposed to upload them files here ?

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/363...enshot14zo.jpg

Hello Pirate,

you should upload all files from the left panel to the right one with public_html/ opened (like here: http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/9...eenshot4pq.jpg )

It is ok to overwrite .htaccess, because it is currently empty (file size = 0bytes)

doing it nowwwww.....

thanks for your reply mate

hope fully this time it works

ok i think it installed this time

now i got a little problem here

this is my forum www.indiabroadband.net

the very first forum is called Broadband News and if you go in there there is nothing in there now
i had only two threads on the whole board and they were in there they do show up on the home page but when i click to go in they dont exist any more

have i screwed up something during installation again ?