Separate installations is the easy way to go. I now have 3 separate installs on my server. Each has its own dedicated database and user in MySQL, and each website has a separate serendipity installation within its own site space. Keeps things simple.

Right off the top of my head, I can see an issue. since your wrapper file is "ws_blog.htm", the extension ".htm" is telling the server it's a static HTML page, thus the php will not get executed properly. try renaming it to ws_blog.php or ws_blog.shtml (depends on the web server configuration).

I ...

FYI, I have finally gotten this page live--DNS just propagated a couple of hours ago. 3 month's work from a box-o-parts from newegg to a functioning server with virtual hosting serving a small handful of sites...it's been a long road.

The blog can be found here: http://www.saviyadances.com/blog.php ...

If "localhost" does not work and 127.0.0.1 does, sounds to me like there's a missing entry in your hosts file. AFAIK, that one is typically there by default. I'll bet if you put it back in localhost would work again.

I have a question regarding the database user. Once the blog is all set up, what permissions in mySQL are required for the blog to work? So far, I've left it at the shotgun approach of everything short of Grant. I'd like to remove any unnecessary permissions possible.

Can you tell I'm hyper ...

The relative paths just worked in the first place, and seemed like the logical thing to do at first.

I've just set up this blog software for my wife's new webpage (not quite yet live) and thought I'd share a few things I learned along the way.

I wanted to maintain the formatting of the overall page, so insisted on going the embed-Serendipity-in-a-page route. Honestly, the documentation while ...