ISPConfig3 packages and ports mysteries

Hi all

So I have just installed my first VPS server by following the step by step guides on the ISPConfig website. I know less than nothing about Linux and only now learned how to use VI (heck I still don’t know how to exit vi without saving my changes, I am that new to all of this so when you decide to offer help, please keep in mind that I have never had a linux system and need you to take it real slow with me)

In any event, I got my domain name to point to my website and all was well but I installed WordPress manually and after I got it up and running I was unable to update it or delete any packages or plugins. It kept asking for FTP details and simply kept reporting a file could not be written or reported success only to have done nothing. clearly it is a case of permissions but I had no idea what permissions to set on what files/folders or how to determine what user to set the permissions to. Usual google results only turn up results from people who think we all know linux and simply say “Set the correct group and user and edit your foo.bar file. When you are done with that file make sure to comment out this line” and simply assume I will know in what file…

So I decided to take another approach instead. I deleted all the files and the tables in the database and installed WordPress using the “Available packages” option in ISPConfig. This worked beautifully and I was able to go in and do everything I wanted… except I could not view the tables. I noticed it had created a new database user for me but I am not able to log in using the passwords I set when creating the WordPress installation or the website or any of the other stuff I setup. I am completely locked out. So I simply change the password for the user but still phpmyadmin refuses to let me in… actually, after changing the database user’s password my website throws 503 errors when I try to view it. Strange considering it only asks for te database password, not the user’s password in wp-config.php… but none the less, 2 minutes later and my website loads normally.

Now, something else that bothers me is this… When I create a database there is a button to take me to phpmyadmin to view the database but the link is invalid because it tries to send me to https on port 8080 when in fact I should be going to normal http on port 8081. Is this something I should fix in IGINX or where do I fix this? Once I manually alter the url from ssl to unencrypted and change the port, I am able to log in just fine

So those are the two questions I need answering…:
1. When I install WP using the “Available packages” option, what is the user it creates’s password and why can I still not access the database with that user when I change the password?

In contrast, if I simply go to the database and set the database to use the user I created instead of the one ISPConfig created, then I can log in as me and view that database along with all the rest of my databases… Why can’t I log in as the user it created?

2. How do I fix ISPConfig to go to http port 8081 instead of https port 8080? And why is there that discrepancy in the first place? I assume I did something wrong during setup but what? And how do I fix it?

Thanks for any help you can offer me