One thing that I found a bit confusing when I started using Joomla was the fact, that I always built my Joomla systems on a test server and then had to move it onto another server. But moving your Joomla 1.5 site to another server isn't so difficult as it sounds. Just follow these simple steps:

Export your MySQL data

Log into your phpMyAdmin and select "Export". Then select all tables and export them. You will now have a SQL query that you can run on your new database. Log into your new database's phpMyAdmin and run the query. You have now succesfully moved your data. Now for the files.

Download and Upload

With a FTP client download ALL of the files from your Joomla test server. When this i done, upload your files to your new server.

Edit configuration.php

You have to tell Joomla to use the new database data. Open the configuration.php file on the new server, and edit the following variables to fit the new database and FTP settings:

var $log_path = 'yourfullserverpath/logs';
var $tmp_path = 'yourfullserverpath/tmp';
var $live_site = 'http://www.mysite.com';
var $ftp_host = '127.0.0.1';
var $ftp_port = '21';
var $ftp_user = 'myftpuser';
var $ftp_pass = 'myftppassword';
var $ftp_root = 'myftprootfolder';
var $host = 'mymysqlhost';
var $user = 'mysqluser';
var $db = 'mysqldatabasename';
var $password = 'mysqlpassword';

Save these settings, and you're good to go. Remember, that if you don't know the full server path, you can always find it in the "System Info" menu in the Joomla backend. If you edit the other information first, you're able to log into the administrator area on your new site and get the server path.

Good luck, and remember this only works in Joomla 1.5+