Does the payment take place immeditately or take some time? Is it okay if i buy my domain over seas? Will people in the US be able to see the site being hosted at(and of a domain from) India? How do i "upload SMF to my server" using ftp? How do i find out if someone replied to a post i made! I keep having to find my thread adn see if someone said something!
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Depends on the payment processors. Normally PayPal/E-gold/MoneyBookers payment are instant. You can buy a domain and host it anywhere in the world. It'll be seen all over the world. If your host provides cPanel then you can install it from fantastico, otherwise google it.
or use client like flashfxp and connect to your server (your host will give connection details like ftp user/password etc....) When u connect then upload the script to your root folder, extract it and install. well it requires lot of more steps like mysql data u need but just google, ull find everything u need.