new to installation

I never expected to be a 5 min installer but It’s going on for near on 24 hours now. i believe but am not sure the MySQL database is set up, I have read the codex many times and keep following it step by step but each time i set up the path (in firefox) to the install.php doc, it finds the doc and then downloads it and pulls up dreamweaver which usually freezes and takes ages to crash.

if anyone has any suggestions to point me the right way i would appreciate it. i have read the codex many many times now and am not sure that is helping.

thanks