How do you create the master. Say I have www.prettydomain.com.

I install the master at master.prettydomain.com right?

So I download latest version of Joomla, install it into master.prettydomain.com, run install to set up joomla with all bells and wisthles, like JoomGallery, Community Builder, some fine theme etc. Last but not least I install JMS Multisites.

The I go install Slave1, that is actually my main site, namely: www.prettydomain.com

Slave 2 is yet another domain, www.prettierdomain.com, but resides physically at the prettydomain/multisites/prettierdomain.

Am I correct? I have some questions.

master.prettydomain.com is reachable for anyone! How do you prevent this???

I can even surf to your master joomla: master.demo.jms2win.com/ !

How do you install a new version of Joomla!? Since you have your own install base.

I simply do not grasp the concept. How to create master, what to install on master, how to prevent master from beeing seen by my website visitors, etcetera.

This thing is a nightmare to grasp. Any help would be appreciated.

YES create a specific master website is a good practice that we recommend.

You can protect your master.prettydomain.com with an additional passowrd in .htaccess password or event block all IPs addresses except the one of you Internet Service Provider (ISP) from which you are doing the maintenance of your websites.

The the standard procedure to install the joomla update.
Wtih joomla, you have to unzip or untar their distribution.

In general I recommend to start uninstall the JMS patches before applying the joomla update.

The master website is the repository or library of all the extensions required by all your slave sites. So you have to install everything.

You have plenty of video in the tutorial that give an overview and explain thow to install, JMS and configure some cases.

If you want a specific teaching, this is also possible with our billable support that you can order at www.jms2win.com/download?page=shop.produ...35&category_id=1

Thanks for the reply, I now know my assumption is correct and that I should .htaccess passwd protect my master dir.

The tutorials are almost impossible to follow. Verry bad audio quality and poor english, sorry to say, I don't mean to be rude or anything. The diagrams are very helpfull but the master website just drops out of the sky. The master is taken as a fact and in the videos there is no explanation on how to set-up or maintain the master.

If I understand you correctly the master website is the website on which I should install a new version of Joomla. I thought the JMS package came with an install directory that goes with a specific joomla version. These are things that do not become clear watching the video's......

So from time to time there is a new JMS package, I can just overwrite the current JMS? And when a new version of Joomla comes along I should uninstall the JMS patches, install Joomla on master only, reapply the patches and all should be fine?

I officially give up.

I have spent many evenings of my valuable time trying to make this thing work. Hour after hour trying to understand what this guy is saying in this tutorial-vids. Dropping microphone multiple times, volume at 10, an accent that is very difficult to understand.

You should have put more effort in real-life examples. not master.demo.jms2win.com/multisites/slave1a and the like...

And then there is the awfull Tools menu, with screens in which I Absolutely do not understand whether I should Install from master, share from master, propagate to children and / or overwrite. All this having a master, a slave1, a share1a and share1b, where the hack should i put what the heck setting?

It is almost impossible to understand, sorry I quit. Money not well spent.

I am sure that technically this is a masterpiece, but I cannot configure it. I have seen Vid. 16 (sharing users multiple sites something) a dozen times. I now have 4 websites that are absolutely identical. I change the menu on one, all 4 change the same.

I give up. (and no: I am not going to hire someone for 74 Euro an hour )

You need to fix this with DNS. I use an IP address for the master and the real www.whatever.com as the main site set with virtual domains in httpd.conf. Works well. But yes, it's a steep learning curve but worth persisting if you need to share certain databases. Otherwise you would not need it.

It seems I am [or was] not the only one who can't get his head around the whole "template" issue.

It is the part like this that give me head-ache: " It is possible to use sub-directory which is computed based on some parameters provided by the user. In particular, it is possible to define a domain name alias." What?

I mean using examples like master1.demo.jms2win.com/slave1 is not going to help to understand what's going on. This is paid component and manual is part of the deal. If you feel the price does not cover your expenses then increase the JMS price upfront but provide decent tutorial, not half-baked one.