Help with vBulletin.

[CoryC787]

Hello,
I and a few friends are looking to buy a vBulletin forum. The only problem is that this is all of ours first forum. We are completely lost. lol. We have no idea what al we need to do it. I know we need to buy a vB but thats about all i know. If someone could please help us by telling me what all we would need, where we could get it, and how much it would cost i would greatly appreciate it. Also, I know we need a server and stuff like that if you could please specify what comes with the vB, is it jsut the forum builder or does other stuff come too? And we are expecting hopefully 500-1000 people to join. Thank you for your help and time.

-Cory

[DrZaius]

Hi Cory,

There are other boards available other than VB as well, a lot of them are free. Check out phpBB which seems to be the best. Most come with good instructions as well, listing the steps and requirements.

http://www.phpbb.com/

[mairving]

Starting a forum is always slow. It takes awhile for people to find you. You don't really need a server. You just need someone to host it for you. I like using Hostingmatters (http://www.hostmatters.com) but there are plenty of good hosts out there. Vbulletin is probably the best bulletin board out there but it is pricey, $165US. PHPBB is probably a step or so behind, mostly in support but it is quite polished. Editing the templates in either can be quite painful unless you are quite familar with PHP & HTML.

[CoryC787]

thanks for the help. the PHPBB URL u gave me doesnt work :(. is the site down or is it a typo? I think once i check PHPBB out i will probably go with them for the time being. Then when I get good traffic and alot of members i might switch over.

[CoryC787]

never mind the link works now. thanks. :)

[CoryC787]

Ok, another question, when i went to DL it it said to choose a mirror. What does that mean? Do i pick the one nearest to me? Thanks.

[doctorgonzo]

Choose whichever mirror works best. Mirror sites just have the same information on them, giving you a choice of where to download from.

[homer15]

for phpbb, you're going to need a database program. access will work, if you have it, but if you need to download something, download <a href="http://www.mysql.com/" target="_blank">mysql</a>. i run a small chat forum using both of these.

[mairving]

If you have someone else host the site for you, you won't need Access or MySQL. Just make sure that your host has preferably MySQL. For a web-site, you should never even consider using Access because of performance problems with multiple users.

[N/A]

Snitz Forum (http://forum.snitz.com/)
Its free.i think its good.