help creating a forum

[snypercore]

ok could someone tell me the steps needed to make and host a forum? starting with getting the website name. thanks

 

[NathanLedet]

With a forum like this, you need to purchase vBulletin

vBulletin® - Instant Community

It's a little pricey if you're on a tight budget, but it is well worth the money.

Your host needs to support MySQL and PHP...do you have hosting picked out yet?

 

[snypercore]

no i havnt, im pretty unclear on the process but i really would like a forum like this one. i want to build a community much like this one.

how much roughly would you say were talking? that seems pricey, maybe to start with i wil start with a free alternative and then upgrade depending on the success. how cna i host at home? i have a spare computer i can use for the server. how would i go about this thakns for any help

 

[snypercore]

ok i stopped being so dam lazy and now have a few real questions.

what does no-ip actaully do
can i get apache and no-ip in linux? (ubuntu) as the server wil be hosted on a linux machine
how hard is apache to set up? also im pretty new to linux.
once i have apache and no-ip setup is there an app for free forums? or a method of getting a forum for free, if all goes well ill buy the vbull. thanks

 

[Kubel]

phpBB • Creating Communities Worldwide
Home of SMF: Free PHP and MySQL forum software
PunBB

There are other free forums but they have slipped my mind. All of the above use MySQL and PHP, and should work fine on Ubuntu once you have everything installed.

Yes, no-ip can be installed on linux. It's quite easy, if you have the instructions.

The Newbie's Guide to the No-IPâ„¢ Linux Client

No-IP acts as a dynamic DNS updater. I'm not sure if you are familiar with this, but here's a quick laymans explanation:

Domain names are simply easy to remember shortcuts to IP addresses (unique numbers that identify stuff on the Internet [servers, computers, routers, etc...]). Most ISPs give you a dynamic, temporary IP address that changes often. Because it would be a pain to keep changing your domain settings to point to your new IP, programmers have come up with dynamic DNS updaters. The No-IP client is one of these updaters. It basically updates your no-ip subdomain each time your IP address changes. So when people type in your no-ip address, they will always reach your current IP address (and not one that has expired).

To install Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Ubuntu, just go to the Add/Remove Applications utility and do a search. You should be able to install them through that quite easily. If it's not listed there, open a console and type the following:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server apache2 php5 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5

That should get you started. You will want to look over various wikis to learn how to configure apache and whatnot, since that's a lot of work that I don't want to type here .

Good luck!

 

[NathanLedet]

You're opening up a whole can of worms you don't want to get into. I promise. I get hosting through other providers and there's nothing wrong with doing so. I pay about 10 bucks a month for something that's done and ready to go.

If you open a forum and use your own box...man I just don't see how it would work. what kind of connection do you have? If it's a little cable modem...you can have only a few people online at once.

You have to deal with security issues, making sure your box is up and going all the time, installing Apache, MySQL, PHP, and a lot more. I would go with Godaddy (and I don't like Godaddy at all) LONG before I ever went with my own box from my own home.....oh, not to mention having a box on 24/7 will probably raise your electricity bill...the extra amount you pay for your box to be on you could pay for hosting.

based on my experience, and i bet many other people will agree, I say don't go through the struggle of using your own box. there's reliable hosting out there that's cheap and all you have to do is register.

Hey, if you'd like I can talk with you in chat or something about my forums and hosting I use. shoot me a PM and let me know what messenger service you have. I have AIM, Yahoo, Skype...whatever

 

[Kubel]

I'm not sure. For years, I hosted my own stuff before I ended up paying. I was on slow cable (back when 768/64 was super fast). Now you have broadband options offering 1MB+ upload speeds which would do very well with a small server. For fun, for experience, and just to save a buck or two- it's a good idea to host your own stuff.

But I agree with you about everything else. With energy costs rising, summer coming fast, etc.. You will be paying the electric bill to keep it on, and paying the electric bill to keep your room cool from the heat of a server running 24/7- might as well just put that money into the cost of professional hosting. You also have to worry about reliability, uptime, speed, quality of service, time spent self-administrating, etc...

Anyway, if you really want to do this at home, don't let those be reasons to stop you. Like I said, I hosted my gaming clan site and forum and a personal site at home for years and I really enjoyed it. The only reasons I went with a professional web host is because it was cheap, fast, more reliable, and my friend had a server .

 

[snypercore]

thanks for the imput guys, so iff i consider jsut paying can i use one of the free forums and host it? can anyone tel me the following..

as said above can i use the free forum on a paid host?
do i have to have a domain? even if i i dont where do i purchase a domain from?
if/when i buy a host, how do i set it up? is it jsut a case of uploading a forum?
using teh free forums how do i make one? do i make one offline like a website and then just upload it when done?

thanks
EDIT i think ill use the phpBB forum thanks, ive downlaoded it but its not what i
thought how do i set it up its a pack of files .zip? is tha pack of fiels all i upload?

EDIT^^ again lol ok now its not 4 am i can type clearer and have done some research.

i plan on using sMF ona free host for a test run. i will use firefox FTP extension to upload stuff to the server my only quesiton is i have downlaoded the forum which is a zip consiting of the .. well forum. my question is do i create the forum then upload or do i upload then edit (add forums pages sections etc..) if i have to make it first how do i?
how do i upload it to a server as in , is all i have to do is upload it and bam its done? or do i need to set anythign up like SQL if so how do i?

help is much appreciated

 

[NathanLedet]

Do you have any messenger services? It'd be a lot easier to talk you through.
SMF is a good free forum. I like it.

 

[snypercore]

i use msn messenger.. check your pm ill send you my addy. if you could talk me through it i would be most grateful