Building a forum

[PiercedE30]

Ok, quick run down.
I am looking into building a web site with a forum. I used to do some HTML coding and site building about 3 years ago when I was in HS and I know that the coding can be a pain. Is there an easy way, like using a web editing program or even possibly a WYSIWYG program that you can use to build a forum?

[Justin B]

vBulletin (what this is) if I am not mistaken is something close to what you're thinking about but its $$. It has layouts and such, I think. phpbb also, I dont know how they compare.

[PiercedE30]

Is there anyway that I can run it on my computer and set it up locally instead of uploading it somewhere and then working on it there?

[gstuning]

You need to be able to set up a webserver at your home if you plan on doing that, try IIS or Apache

[bwanac]

You are going to want to buy or find something like vBulletin or whatever he mentioned. A forum is more than just html, as far I know it is database driven, and could be a bitch to set up without prior experience.

[gerlando]

No offense, but based on your questions I'd say installing it on your local machine would be a bad idea unless you're up for a lot of reading and learning about web servers and software. Even if you got through everything you still wouldn't be able to host anything to the public without additional work.

I'd recommend finding a host that offers a one click install option. That would get you up and running in a short amount of time with almost no work. Dreamhost offers PHPBB one click installs and hosting for $7/mo. That's about as cheap and easy as you're going to get.

[JGood]

Yeah, do some reading. Your going to need a web hosting company and a domain name. I used StartLogic, very cheap and excellent support. They offer an easy phpbb install for free.

You will not be hosting anything locally. Most ISP's don't allow this unless you want to spend big $$$, and judging by your questions you are nowhere near ready to tackle this. The forum part is easy. Using phpbb is very simple, everything is the same as using a forum basically. No programming involved. The hard part is setting up a nice website where your forum is located. I suppose you could just buy a domain name and get a host to simply set up a forum only.

What you need to do is research. There is plenty of free info on the web.