They do say time flies when you're having fun. That'll be where the last four hours have gone then.
I updated some settings in the site I was having problems with and they seemed to work. I changed the .htaccess file and the wp-config file and things stopped working. There must have been an issue with the .htaccess file so I renamed it and generated a new one. I have to say, the various help pages on the Internet have been suitably useful. Now everything seems to load, although not as https, which was the aim of the exercise. Hmm.
On the other site, the one I most want to use, I installed the SemPress theme, messed around with various parts of it to get it looking halfway reasonable, then moved on to Indiewebbing it. I have managed to get some of my sites to link back successfully, now I've realised how picky it all is - just putting x-dot-com is no good if it's https:// as that seems to need to be specified. At the point my desire for food overcame my desire to continue, micro.blog had verified me based on this rel=me stuff, but allegedly there was no track back, according to indiewebify.me. I might try again later. In theory, though, I'm verified. And hungry…