On Forums

[iONic]

I've had an interest in creating a forum of my own(not electronics related) and
wanted to know what service provides for this, what it costs. I currently have a family forum that if free with the domain hosting, but it doe not have many features that this and other forums have. For example it doesn't have email notification, cant add active links in the post, thread Subscription, or the lovely but not so necessary Post Icons.

can someone point me in the right direction?

[picbits]

You need to find a web host that will allow PHP and Mysql access. They are readily available for around £5/$10 a month for a half decent host.

Then download some free software called PHPBB - it works, does the email notifications and its pretty simple to administer and set up.

Have a look at www.picbits.co.uk/forums for an example - its hosted on a home server with a fixed IP address and a 3mb download / 600k upload bandwidth.

[iONic]

Originally Posted by picbits

You need to find a web host that will allow PHP and Mysql access...

Thanks picbits, my hosting service does have this feature with a hole lot of extras for $95 - $120 per year.

[picbits]

Get downloading and testing then

I've been using the latest beta release without any problems - seems very stable and I've been getting a lot less spammers on the boards since installing it.

[ElectroMaster]

Hi iONic.

This forum is hosted by 4d Web Hosting. I would fully recommend them to you as they are very affordable at $4.95 per month (thats not how much we pay but would be suitable if you were just starting a new forum).

With 4d Web Hosting you get to use PHP and MySQL, and there service is totally compatible with vBulletin (this is what we use but it does cost money) and phpbb (free but very good) forum software.

Hope that helps.