16 replies to this topic

[Arcade Master]

Ok, so I'm looking at starting my own forum. I'll be using some free software like phpBB to get started and then if it takes off I'll look at using vBulletin or IPB or another paid software. The main reason I join here is because its a new forum and I wanted to know what type of hosting it uses and how many users can be online without getting in trouble with the host for using to much resources? Would having something like 10 people online crash a forum on dream host?

Edited by Arcade Master, 17 January 2012 - 10:46 PM.

[Arcade Master]

Actually, one other question. Would free hosting be good enough to host a forum?

thanks.

[Tim]

Ok, I wouldn't be going with a free web host if you want a reliable and stable server. Often free web hosts pile a lot of users onto one server which then provides degraded performance. If you're actually interested in starting a new and successful forum, look at paid web hosting companies. Now, how many users you can have online spends on the server hosting your website and the forum script you use. A bit of research will tell you that some php forum scripts use more resources than others. You'll then need a reliable host to actual host it for you. Dream Host has a good reputation but I've always been one to stay clear of "unlimited" web hosts.

As far as the software goes, phpBB is certainly the most popular free forum software available and it is very well support too. Once you're ready, IPB and vBulletin have scripts designed to migrate you from phpBB to their software pretty easily, so I wouldn't be worrying to much about that.

Best of luck!

[Arcade Master]

Thanks for the help tim. Ill come back and post the link if I ever get the site going

[Tim]

Arcade Master, on 20 January 2012 - 12:18 AM, said:

Thanks for the help tim. Ill come back and post the link if I ever get the site going

No problem at all, sounds good.

[froment]

If you have even slightest hopes that your forum may grow up, then free hosting is very bad idea! You may put a lot of efforts and time in building your forum, creating content, attracting members, and then, boom, it may just dissapear one day!

Hosting nowadays is affrodable to anyone; I had good experience with basic packages of some cheap shared hosting, at price of some 1 to 2 EUR monthly. As Tim says, I'd also stay away from "unlimited everything" offers; I'd rather take basic package with some reasonable resources (say, 1 GB space, 5 to 10 GB bandwidth, 5 to 10 SQL databases is enough to begin with), and as traffic grows, you'll have an idea if it's worth extending your package.

It might be juts my personal prefernce, but I'd advise you to look for Linux hosting with CPanel; windows hosting usually comes with Plesk control panel, which is nightmare! CPanel has possibility of directly editing some .htaccess options, while windows hosting does not have .htaccess file at all...

As for software, I used to try phpBB 3, but I didn't like its Admin panel at all, terrible! Too confusing and not intuitive; same settings scattered around in several places, and I remember to read warning somewhere "Be careful, as you may lock your own account!". I was happy to delete it, and switch to SMF, which appeared to be excellent software, at least in my book. I don't think you will ever need or want paid software once you try SMF.

[Tim]

froment, on 20 January 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

It might be juts my personal prefernce, but I'd advise you to look for Linux hosting with CPanel; windows hosting usually comes with Plesk control panel, which is nightmare! CPanel has possibility of directly editing some .htaccess options, while windows hosting does not have .htaccess file at all...

I would have to agree with you on this one. I've always gone with linux based cPanel hosts. Along side perks you mention, cPanel remains the same no matter which host you choose, so you don't have worry about learning a new Control Panel.

froment, on 20 January 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

I don't think you will ever need or want paid software once you try SMF.

Perhaps I should have given SMF a go before going with IPB!

[froment]

Tim, on 20 January 2012 - 10:54 AM, said:

Perhaps I should have given SMF a go before going with IPB!

I was surprised to see results of a poll of free forum software thet other day in another forum; there were no many voters, but MyBB got vote from 14 out of 24 voters; both SMF and phpBB were in great minority: only 3 and 5 votes... :|

I have never tried MyBB, and they praised it for its intuitivity and rich features. Though, from what I recall, its serious flaw, at least in my opinion, is lack of portal - both SMF and phpBB have portal plugins. Simple Portal for SMF may work as stand-alone application, or integrated into forum, and I like that.

[megabytehosting]

Arcade Master, on 17 January 2012 - 10:45 PM, said:

Ok, so I'm looking at starting my own forum. I'll be using some free software like phpBB to get started and then if it takes off I'll look at using vBulletin or IPB or another paid software. The main reason I join here is because its a new forum and I wanted to know what type of hosting it uses and how many users can be online without getting in trouble with the host for using to much resources? Would having something like 10 people online crash a forum on dream host?

I would say if you are going for a shared environment the best advise I could give is fine a webhost with CloudLinuxOS, Litespeed Webserver, with a decent amount of RAM alocated to users.

[Arcade Master]

froment, on 22 January 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

I was surprised to see results of a poll of free forum software thet other day in another forum; there were no many voters, but MyBB got vote from 14 out of 24 voters; both SMF and phpBB were in great minority: only 3 and 5 votes... :|

If you were going to start a new forum based on free forum software, which script would you use?