Hey guys and gals,

I have been working on hosting my own wepage and as you all know my own FTP. Now I would like to find out how to add forums to my webpage so people can come and chat, leave comments, etc. (like yours but not as big).

I really don't even know where to start so if anyone could help with any hints, ideas, suggestions, that would be great.

Thanks
lgk_195

Well I should give more info so you could have a better idea where I am at so far.

I am using IIS to host the webpage and my operating system is XP pro.

P4 1.6
512MB DDR Ram
64MB NVIDIA Card
2 IDE Hard Drives -80GB Maxtor/60GB IBM
Windows XP Pro
Cable connection

I have my domain name registered and my DNS forwarding setup.
The webpage and ftp as posted above are up and running but I don't know where to start to add a forum sections.

ok first you need to setup a server side scripting language on your machine i suggest PHP http://php.net once you install and configure that install mysql(sql server for database) required by most good forum scripts. once you have php and sql installed look for a php forum script i suggest phpBB but theres other ones out there like Invision etc. i don't know the site addresses for either off the top of my head but just google it.

Also for html and other languages you'll like want to go with Apache. They are by far the most widely used. I use them at home with DNS2GO.

I've tried both Apache and IIS and personally favor Apache. Serv-U is a good program for FTP stuff.

This should help. Made this about a year ago.
http://www.pronetworks.org/SOFTWARE/Serv-U/Serv-U-HowTo.htm

Thanks for the reply,

Ok so far I have downloaded the following:

phpBB-2.0.6
php-4.3.4
mysql-4.0.18

I have mysql installed and when I type the dos command it says it loads and starts so I think I am good there. My next step is to what, load the php and then the phpBB?

Loading of these two seems to be a little difficult because the install direction do not match up with the OS (XP Pro) I am running the directories and stuff do not match.

Anyway am I right in think I need to load the php and then the phpBB?

I'd load Apache first... else you won't have anywhere to put the phpbb.

Apache is a general web server overall..

/ProgramFiles/Apache/Apache Group/htdocs is where it'll put your files so that anyone who goes to www.yourdomain.dns2go.com or your-ip-addy will see anything in that folder. That's where you'll want to install phpbb. But first, yes you'll have to install php to work on your computer. This will also require to you add a small snippet of code to the Apache configuration file (but it's easy to do).

I know it might sound a bit complicated, but it's pretty easy. Sql is in my opinion the harder part sometimes.

Kanaloa,

Thanks for the "how to" nicely done.
You don't happen to have one on "how to setup forums" do you...lol.

I prob should set one up... but phpbb is pretty easy after the php and mysql are installed.

For those who are generally struggling with (L)AMP (Linux Apache Mysql PHP, myabe without the linux bit) installation there are some bundled utilities out there, eg PHP Triad for Windows:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad

There are some other equivalents out there, but this is the only one I ever used before I worked it out by hand.