The Awesome Forums

[seanieboy77]

Hey everyone at Sysopt, you must agree that these forums are awesome The Only thing that I want to know is how you made them so awesome. I want to put ones just like it on my website but don't know how. I have my website up and it needs a lot of work so thats why i wanted to start some forums. So I was wondering if anyone could give me link to some site that shows you how to do it or if one of guys here sould give it to me.

Thanks for your Help:t

[Swordfish]

Sure, get the details below:

http://www.vbulletin.com/

http://www.phpbb.com/

phpbb is an open source bulletin board system in other words free for all.

:t

[rraehal]

Originally posted by Swordfish
Sure, get the details below:

http://www.vbulletin.com/

http://www.phpbb.com/

phpbb is an open source bulletin board system in other words free for all.

:t

I use phpbb in all my websites that have php capability. I use this http://www.discusware.com/index.php for sites that do not have PHP. It uses HTML files and falt databases. It is not as pwerful but functional.

[seanieboy77]

so does sysopt have to pay for these forums?:confused:

[rraehal]

WSysopt most likely purchased the forum software. It looks like vBulletin to me.

They have a server that supports a SQL database of some type. The server supports PHP as well. These two features allow them to run their purchased software. I think it was a one time cost.

The ongoing costs are the maintainence on the web server and its software.

[seanieboy77]

Can you make forums without having to purchase them?

:confused:

[fishybawb]

Originally posted by Swordfish

http://www.phpbb.com/

phpbb is an open source bulletin board system in other words free for all.

:t

[user0209]

Originally posted by seanieboy77
Can you make forums without having to purchase them?

:confused:

Yes but it'll be like reinventing the wheel.
vBulletin is much much faster than any php or any other technology forum. I am using phpbb for my site (everythingviet.com) and it's ok. Nothing to write home about

[CompGeek01]

You'll almost always have to pay for the server becuase there aren't that many sites still offering free PHP + mySQL services. The best option I have fund is to host the site yourself. It still costs me 4.95 a year for the .us domain name.....but it's a lot less than I would spend for a mySQL/PHP server.

[user0209]

Originally posted by CompGeek01
The best option I have fund is to host the site yourself. It still costs me 4.95 a year for the .us domain name.....but it's a lot less than I would spend for a mySQL/PHP server.

do you mean a hosting service that costs you 4.95/year? Which one?

[CompGeek01]

No......a top level .us domain name costs 4.95 a year as long as you are a US citizen I believe. The hosting comes from running Apache (or an equiv. web server) on your own machine.

[user0209]

Originally posted by CompGeek01
No......a top level .us domain name costs 4.95 a year as long as you are a US citizen I believe. The hosting comes from running Apache (or an equiv. web server) on your own machine.

What kind of connectivity and spec on your own machine? I find it's hard to come up with a setting that would save you money.

[CompGeek01]

I'm on an AMD2800+ 1GB RAM...etc...servers don't really need that much processing power.

As for the connection, I'm on a college campus...we have an OC12 line split up between a few thosand students...do the math. Not bad.

-B

[cwin]

Originally posted by user0209
Yes but it'll be like reinventing the wheel.
vBulletin is much much faster than any php or any other technology forum. I am using phpbb for my site (everythingviet.com) and it's ok. Nothing to write home about I am gonna have to disagree there... most of it depends on the server specs, and the newer versions of vbulletin are clogged up and bulky

[seanieboy77]

Ok I've tried to install the phpbb file but it so complicated. Can any of you help me with this? I could really use the help. I get to the point where I load the actual file on with my FTP explorer but then the install tells me to decompress the file onto the directory. Could any of you help me. Thanks.

-BTY

[rraehal]

Here is the online guide for phpBB: http://phpbb.com/support/guide/#section2

I extracted the files on my local machine with WinZip set to preserve file paths. I then used FTP to transfer to unjzipped contents to my web server in a directory called forum. The forum directory was an exact mirror of the local unzipped files. Your readme tells you which file to launch from your web broswer to configure phpBB. You simply give it your database name and authentcation info. phpBB has a script that adds all the needed tables and record info. Once the setup has completed you should be able to lauch the forum from any webbrowser.

[user0209]

Originally posted by cwin
I am gonna have to disagree there... most of it depends on the server specs, and the newer versions of vbulletin are clogged up and bulky

Of course we have to base the compared performance on the same server spec.

Which version of vbulletin is that?