I want to start my own forum, need info 1st though.

I have thought long and hard about starting my own forum, again.. :thinking:

However, this time I would like some ideas on hosting sites, bandwidth and forum software before I try again at doing this.

I'm almost sure it will be vbulletin based this time, unless something better is available.

Any input is very much appreciated.

One of the forums I frequent uses this http://www.simplemachines.org/
It seems to run pretty well. Then again I don't know much about forum software and setting one up.

Hello,

Im glad I can help you in this.

For a hosting, I dont suggest you one free if you want to start a serious forum. There are a lot of very good, affordable good hostings, with higher bandwidth, etc...

I think phpBB2 can be a good forum software to start, since vBulletin is a professional software, and you need to pay for it. Normally, if you got catched by the hosting/vBulletin and is notified to the ISP, your forum will be disabled until you remove all the vBulletin. Professional hosts like hostgator, goddady, dreamhost, etc... are affordable and work fine. There is also etglobalsolution, I've been with them about 1 year, no problems and they have really cheap prices for small packages, from about 2UK 'Libra' per year. Anyway, if you want to try how cPanel work, Fantastico DeLuxe, etc... PM and I can setup you a temporal account in one of my servers

Edit, the forum suggested by 021411 is a good forum and work fine, I know some people who used it in the past without problems, normally less security problems than phpBB2.

Thanks for the link 021411.

There are a couple forums that use this software that I have come to like. :rock:
This software is actually my close second choice right behind vbulletin.

We shall see what I end up with as more info comes in.

Hosting sites and bandwidth are mainly what I'm after at this stage.
I have a good job now and can pay for setting things up good from the start this time around.

cheapest way is to start a chain letter sure it takes a long time to get reposnses but its cheap

raggie33 said:

cheapest way is to start a chain letter sure it takes a long time to get reposnses but its cheap

Click to expand...

Now that's a thought! :lolsign:

Like I said, any input is welcome. :thumbsup:

I don't know what kind of volume you are projecting, but you might check out Nearly Free Speech at http://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ They have a wonderful business model where you only pay for what you actually use.

Yes I set some up with SMF - from simplemachines.org and it was not too difficult. I've seen some others running on it and best of all it's free and open source I believe.