[zorgan]

I'm just off the phone to my hosting - they have explained that they only give a total of one database with my current package, the next package up costing £4 per month will then give me 10 in total SQL databases, they have also advised me that each wordpress installation requires 1 independent database per installation.

is there any way around this?

or is this normal practice to pay at least £4 a month with hosting accounts for databases for wordpress installations?

best regards.
Zorgan.

[colinsp]

You can house more than one Wordpress installation in a database.

How are you going to set up the second one with a script install like Scriptaculos or manually?

The key thing when doing the install is to know the database name and user name and password. When you do the install give the tables a different suffix it is usually wp_ change this to wp2_ or something else entirely. Then tell the installation to use an existing database and give it the name user name and password and you should be good to go.

[dvk01]

although you can use 1 database for multiple worpress installations as colinsp says, it is not a good idea because many addons and themes are badly written enough to insist on the default database prefix and are liekly to cause problems

With hosting packages, you get what you pay for & generally speaking the ultra cheap packages offer little in teh way of help & support or ability to customize
Normally the cheaper packages heavily restrict the badwith & cut you off if you go over the file allownce or the bandwith allowed
the more you pay, the more bandwith & number of files allowed