Problem with the wp-config.php…

Hello! Let me see how well I can word my situation… Basically, I’m trying to install WordPress, and I keep getting this message:

This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host’s database server is down.

I kinda messed up big time. I’ve had my website for a while now, but being the lazy procrastinator that I am, I hadn’t gotten around to working on it for quite some time now. “Some time” meaning probably around six months, more or less. The other day, I began to work on it again, finished, posted one blog, and was completely happy. But wait! I noticed something on another blog that I just had to try and add to mine. It was a widget, though, and I guess I needed a newer version of WordPress to use it. The download window for the widget led me to a download window for WordPress. Without thinking, I downloaded the file, unzipped it, and overwrote all of my WordPress files. Ironically, I’ve had this problem before! (You’d think I would have learned better, right?) I know that the theme will be there, because it was something that I added to the WordPress directory myself, so it couldn’t have been overwritten. HOWEVER, my pages, my blog–all gone. I hadn’t worked with WordPress for a while, so I actually tried to do the installation over again, and set up the wp-config.php page, and without thinking (more like stupid-panic-thinking) I overwrote my old wp-config.php page. The one with all the correct information on it.

So back to the main issue here… I can’t seem to get the information correct. I know I have the username and password correct. The MySQL database manager clearly shows the username, and I know I’ve typed the password correctly, because I’ve retyped it several times, and changed it in the database manager to be extra sure. So I’m pretty sure the problem is the hostname. The database manager also has a “Server Name”, but if I try using that, I get a white screen with an even more frightening looking error message on it. Does anyone use iPage? What am I supposed to put for the hostname? And also, I posted my sad little story just in case someone has any idea if there’s a way to get my site back to the way it was. I’m guessing not, but it’s worth a try! And on yeah! I forgot to say, I wasn’t sure what to put for the version number… I’m not sure if I technically have one right now.

I’m REALLY not a tech-savvy person! I like having websites, but creating them? Not so much. :\ Any help at all is greatly, greatly appreciated!!