rg8043 Posted October 13, 2006 Posted October 13, 2006 I would like to start a webpage that has a bulletin board to discuss topics in a certain field. I found a site that I vist , that I thought would be perfect for what I have in mind, so I sent the owner an email and he advised me that he uses total choice hosting, and phpbb.com for the software to run the bulletin board. I checked out phpbb and found that they have numerous templates that seem to offer exactly what I want to use in the bulleting board. I have a domain name, now I would like to design my website/software. First, I do not know what size bandwith I should purchase from Tch. Second, can someone recommend a book or manual to read that explains how to upload the website template and get it fine tuned before it is open to the public? Is there a way to download the software and set up a website on your personal computer before putting it on the web? I am sure you can guess that I am new to this by my basis questions, but I am excited to get this up and see if I can attract users to my site. Thank you in advance. Rob G. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted October 13, 2006 Posted October 13, 2006 Welcome to the forums Rob You can start with any size plan and upgrade at any time simply by opening a ticket with the help desk. So say you start with the $4 or $5 plan you can easily upgrade later as your site becomes more popular. While you can use phpBB there is a forum that can be installed with a few clicks in Fantatico which is included with any TCH hosting account. The software is called Simple Machine Forums or SMF for short. The nice thing about SMF is their admin interface included a one-click update feature when they release updates. You are required to keep your site secure and keeping the scripts you use updated is a priority. As for downloading and uploading check out our Tutorial section of the forum. To configure on your own PC you would need to be running some sort of web server and PHP and MySQL. Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted October 13, 2006 Posted October 13, 2006 Welcome to the forum, Rob. When you get settled in, be sure to pop in to the introductions forum. Quote
rg8043 Posted October 13, 2006 Author Posted October 13, 2006 [it makes sense to me to integrate my web program with the hosting company. Where can I find Fantatico and view its examples, etc. I am interested in looking at how the forums display, what is involved in administrating the site, etc. Thanks for your reply Rob Quote
TCH-Don Posted October 13, 2006 Posted October 13, 2006 Welcome to the forums Rob The Phpbb software keeps getting security holes in it and is not recommended The SMF forum is an easy install in the what is called fantastico script installer in your web site control panel (cpanel). SMF is easy to upgrade with a few mouse clicks in the Admin panel of the forum, unlike other forums that require you to download the new script and then upload to your space. The SMF site has links to themes. Don't worry about being a beginner, we all started there. At TCH you have the family ( fellow customers ) to help out. You will need is an FTP program to upload files to your web space. Thomas created a tutorial on FTP that may help. Because the forum scripts use a scripting language called PHP and a database you would need to install a web server on your computer with php to play with it locally. As you become more knowledgeable you may want to look in to this. Although a forum may be too much to try on a home computer, the configuration will be a lot different. Not something I will try. But when you start to learn PHP scripting, you may want to go that route. If you have more questions, please ask, we love to help. Quote
rg8043 Posted October 13, 2006 Author Posted October 13, 2006 where do I go to view what the SMF forum template looks like? I would like to see an example of what the bulletin board is going to look like before I commit to that program. Welcome to the forums Rob The Phpbb software keeps getting security holes in it and is not recommended The SMF forum is an easy install in the what is called fantastico script installer in your web site control panel (cpanel). SMF is easy to upgrade with a few mouse clicks in the Admin panel of the forum, unlike other forums that require you to download the new script and then upload to your space. The SMF site has links to themes. Don't worry about being a beginner, we all started there. At TCH you have the family ( fellow customers ) to help out. You will need is an FTP program to upload files to your web space. Thomas created a tutorial on FTP that may help. Because the forum scripts use a scripting language called PHP and a database you would need to install a web server on your computer with php to play with it locally. As you become more knowledgeable you may want to look in to this. Although a forum may be too much to try on a home computer, the configuration will be a lot different. Not something I will try. But when you start to learn PHP scripting, you may want to go that route. If you have more questions, please ask, we love to help. Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted October 13, 2006 Posted October 13, 2006 On the following link you should be able to preview the themes. http://themes.simplemachines.org/ Quote
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