Install never gets to “Step 2” screen

Now entering the 10th hour of trying to figure this out myself, but I’m offically asking others to solve my problem… I’m sorry.

I have tried using IIS on Vista and now am using Wamp and much more pleased but I’m still getting the same result. Once I get my db’s all set up and everything ready to go, the install screen asking for the blog name and email freezes after I click install. When I was using IIS it did the same thing and gave me the error message “Fast CGI times out” or something similar, but since I’ve switched to Wamp no error messages (though same outcome).

I’m in a new root directory, using new PHP config files, I’m super lost…

The outcome is really a blog gets set up and may be fully installed but I have to close the install screen and retrevie my admin password from the db (assuming).

PS. This is my first exposure to web dev, PHP, or hosting. I’m hosting at algerfamily.com and you can see that the blog gets set up, but my install screen is still “waiting for local host” and not giving me my admin password… Can I ASSUME that it’s installed and just pull the password from the db?

Thanks! Leland

Update: It would be great to figure out how/why I’m having this problem, but if I could just ensure that the version of the blog I have up is complete I’d appreciate it. I was able to change the admin password using PhpMyAdmin and the MD5 function. -Thanks!