How to Create a Forum

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Register a domain at a host who supports PHP.

   Many services provide a place to host your BBS, and generally offer guaranteed uptime, easy setup, domain names, and customer support.
   
   Many forum hosting providers now include a service that automates forum installation of 2 of the more popular forum software applications, SimpleMachines and phpBB (if so, follow your hosts instructions to install and then skip to the login portion of the instructions below).
2. 2

   Step 2: Download forum software.

   Consider free open source software that's very well supported, both in terms of development and community support. , You will need this to upload your PHP content to your host. , Set this up on your host through the control panel of your domain. , Go to example.com/forumdirectory/install.php to install and configure your forums. , Follow the instructions on install.php.
   
   After finishing installation, go to the CHMOD settings of config.php and change them to 644 (if you are using phpBB 2). , Delete the install and contrib directories. , Login and go to the admin panel to customize your forum.
3. 3

   Step 3: Download an FTP client.

4. 4

   Step 4: Create a MySQL database.

5. 5

   Step 5: Set up your forums.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you are using phpBB: In your FTP client

7. 7

   Step 7: go to config.php > Properties and set the CHMOD settings to 666.

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   Step 8: Clean up time.

9. 9

   Step 9: Login and Customize Go to example.com/forumdirectory/index.php.

Detailed Guide

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