How long until my website is ready?

[Angad]

I'm making a website for the first time and I've bought the domain and paid for hosting and everything using HostGator, through which I have installed WordPress. I was told that for my website to work (so I can access it and set it up) it would take a couple of hours, but it has been 3 days and the link to my site isn't working ("This web page is not available"). Help?

[Mike]

Waaaay too long. Hosting setup shouldn't be more than 24 hours. Did you upload or transfer your existing WordPress site to HostGator or are they handling this for you? If they are doing it, HostGator needs access to your DNS which is usually who you registered the domain with. Without it, your site won't work until they create or repoint the "A" record.

[ledhead]

Once you paid for the hosting. they company should have set up the domain and the Domain Name System (DNS) entries (including the A entries). It should take only a few hours for these DNS entries to populate to the various DNS servers around the world. Once you upload your files, the site should be viewable.

If it has been 3 days, then the hosting company has not setup your site correctly. You need to contact them.