New to Joomla - what now?

Hi,

Hope you dont mind me posting here but im REALLY REALLY new to joomla. In fact ive never touched it before today and think i may have bitten off more than i can chew.

Ive subscribed and downloaded the FEST template and uploaded it to my server, but it looks NOTHING like what it does on the demo. Heres what I get: http://grab.by/mWke

Im just asking where I go from here to start making it look like what it does on the demo. A step by step would be fantastic if possible so i can follow it to build the site slowly and make notes as I go along.

Regards

Carl.

Instead of installing standard template, please download quickstart version and install it - this version will create 100% copy of our service, with articles, settings etc. Then setting everything up will be more easy.

Hi,

I tried what you said, uploaded the quick site version and started playing with it.

Suddenly the homepage has disappeared and is now just blank, although i have not physically changed anything.

you can see here: http://78.157.201.187/~megaeven.
but this works:
http://78.157.201.187/~megaeven/index.php/about.

Also when you visit the above working link (about) and then click on the K2 / Speakers / Sponsors / Schedule links in the menu, i get the error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_internal_encoding() in /home/megaeven/public_html/components/com_k2/helpers/route.php on line 67

being new to joomla this is like a foreign language to me and i have no idea where to start to sort this out.

It looks like a problem with installation. Perhaps You should upload all files again, because there might be some missing files. QuickStart installation will get You up and running and works without any changes in it.