Installing Drupal

I was installing Drupal 7.2.1 through my host provider to mydomain.com/public_html and it looked like everything updated correctly until I loaded mydomain.com (example) and got a 403 Forbidden error: access to this server denied. I checked the directory and I don't have an index.html file. The update.html file is there but when I run Continue, it comes up with the Drupal update screen with Front Page and Admin links, but both links lead to 403 errors.

I have a brand new hosting account (apache).
I have two domains that will eventually be hosted on this account.
From the information on my host's website I'll be using a Drupal "parked multisite" installation to run both.
I'd like both domains to have their own database and theme.
Right now I am only dealing with one domain. I'll get it up and running and then some months down the line bring the next domain over.

With a Drupal installation I see the subdirectory:
~/sites/default/files

And with multisite installation there's a subdirectory location:
~/sites/example.com/files

I'm under the impression when you first install Drupal these locations are empty.

What files get held here. I this a location just for Drupal's use, or will I as the user be placing something here?
Thanks.

Hi all,

We have just installed Drupal 7 and are converting (slowly) our site to it. I am running 2 application servers (which will eventually become 4) for failover and high availability. That said, what I would like to do is change the cookie_domain in settings.php to allow our developers and administrators to do their work on one server, which will then replicate to the other one, and our content contributors to use the main address to allow them to do their updates either at work or home...

for example

for development

I've tried "everything" before making this post so hopefully I either missed something easy and i'm going to feel dumb, or something is screwed up.

I'm working with Drupal 6, php 5.3.1, and mysql 5.1.41

To start i have a live site and a dev site. The live site was being updated without changes being made to the dev site and the goal was to get the dev site up to date with the live site and start using it as intended.

I first backed up of the files and data for both sites, i then wiped out the dev site, installed the lampp for linux version that's currently installed on the live server and copied all of the relevant files into the base directory.

I then created a new empty database and ran install.php, when it completed i can view the drupal site as normal and access the admin pages etc. I then put the site in maintinance mode and imported the live database. After the databse is imported every page i try to view redirects me to the live site.

I've tried changing the htacess file, manually emptying the database cache files, checked the settings file for a base url, and checked the modules for secure pages (it's not installed).

I've tried running update.php after the database is installed, i've also tried using the non-cleaned links http://www.dev.com/?q=user to get to the admin page, but every page i go to redirects to the live site.

For the past five years of viewing d.o, the distinction between Install Profiles and Distributions have continued to perplex me. When it comes to experimenting with Install Profiles and Distributions, many seem to fall in a heap with contrib modules, libraries and themes not in predictable directory structure. This has been annoying when it comes to compiling drush_make files. As I have difficulty comprehending drush, the inconsistencies exacerbate my comprehension and understanding of Drupal's logical workflow or 'best practice'. What has helped is an incidental introduction to Aegir, casually mentioned at a Drupal Training Day. As I manage a few Drupal codebases, the maintenance has become a nuisance so Aegir is cool... really cool! I also found it a welcome relief to see codebases defined as "Platforms". It would be nice for myself and other people new to Drupal could read 'Platforms' as codebase sets rather than Install Profiles or Distributions?