# Make a forum using phpBB and install mod/hack in the forum.



## geek_rohit (Mar 20, 2005)

With the help of this tutorial you can make a forum based on phpBB. phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable Open Source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ. Based on the powerful PHP server language and your choice of MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers, phpBB is the ideal free community solution for all web sites.
This is my first tutorial.  First part is the forum installation. Go to the last lines for the MODS/Hacks. 
So here goes nothingâ€¦
Fist of all you need a web space ready for the forum site. If you have a paid server well and good, get the details about your hosting account like username, password, IP, etcâ€¦ If you want free hosting option there are many free hosting sites like:
www.dhost.info
www.ecwhost.com
www.100webspace.com

Get yourself registered at a site and get free web space. You will receive a mail from the host giving you the account details. Keep this mail for future reference. It has your account details like the account username and password, IP address, etc. 
With the web space in place, now is the time to get the forum package phpBB, from the official phpBB site www.phpbb.com . Go to the downloads section on top of the page and download the full package, (the current version of phpBB is 2.0.13). It can be downloaded in 3 formats, ZIP, gZIP, bz2. I recommend ZIP version. Download the file from the closest mirror. It is a 659.315 kb file. Unzip the file using your favorite compression program, e.g. WinZip, rar, zip, etc... Now open your FTP client software. It is a software used to transfer files to and fro from the server to a system. We will use this software to transfer the files from our system to the server.  If you donâ€™t have any FTP client software, you can get it from these sites:
*www.smartftp.com/
*www.ipswitch.com/Products/WS_FTP/
*www.cuteftp.com/

FTP client software:
*img36.exs.cx/img36/1042/ftp8fe.th.jpg

After downloading the client software, install the software. After installing the software, start the software and go to the options for configuring the FTP client. All .php, .inc, .sql, .cfg, .htm and .tpl files should be uploaded in ASCII mode, while all graphics should use binary mode. If you are unfamiliar with what this means, please refer to your FTP client documentation. If there is an option for auto, use that option, but still add the above mentioned file extensions to the ASCII file transfer list. This will ensure that all the files are transferred in the required format. Now after this, connect to your server through the FTP client. It will ask the server address, which is the IP of your web hosting account. You will get it from your web space provider. In case of free hosting the mail you got from the host contains the details. Enter the address of the host/web space, the username, and the password. And connect to the server. Now upload the files to the server. By files I mean the phpBB files which you had downloaded before. Note: Do not upload the ZIP file, but the unzipped file. Upload the directory to the server (being sure to retain the directory structure and filenames). Please ensure that the cases of filenames are retained, do NOT force filenames to all lower or upper case doing so will cause errors later. The uploading takes around 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon your internet speed. After uploading the directory change the file permission of config.php to 666 (or -rw-rw-rw- within your FTP Client), so that you may access the file for the installation. Now create a database in the server. Login to your control panel in the web space providerâ€™s website and create a database. Usually MySQL databases are used. But doesnâ€™t matter. Just create a database and note the database username and the password. 
Changing the file permissions:
*img112.exs.cx/img112/469/fileperm1ky.th.jpg

Using your web browser visit the location you placed phpBB 2 with the addition of install/install.php, e.g. *www.xyz.com/phpBB2/install/install.php, *www.xyz.com/forum/install/install.php etc. 
This will open the installations window for the phpBB software. Fill the various fields. 
Installation:
*img119.exs.cx/img119/8674/phpinstall19ym.th.jpg

First is the basic configuration. Choose English as the Default board language. Enter the database type. Like MySQL 3.x. Check the host for the database type. For free hosting check the web space providerâ€™s site and check the type of database or if you got a mail from the host about your database it will contain the database details. Generally it is MySQL 3.0. After the database type, enter the installation type. Install would be the option to be used here. 
Database Config:
*img125.exs.cx/img125/8708/username2xw.th.jpg

Now letâ€™s move ahead to the Database Configuration. First it asks for the hostname. Again check your host. Then the name of the database you created. Enter it in the â€œYour Database Nameâ€? field. Then the password for the database. I suggest, leave the Prefix field as it is. Now lets move on to the next option, Admin Configuration. This is the place where you create the first user account, the administrator, the one who controls the whole forum. Enter your email address, your username, and your password for the admin account. Leave the server port and the script path as it is. Enter the domain name. After entering all the fields click on the Start Install button. This will fill the database with the required fields and make the necessary files and prepares and completes the installation of the forum. After this. Change the file permission of config.php back to (644 or -rw-r--r-- within your FTP Client), after that click on the â€œFinish Installationâ€? button. 
Finish Insllation:
*i158.exs.cx/img158/477/finish1oa.th.jpg

Once you have successfully installed phpBB 2.0.13 *you MUST ensure you remove the entire install/ and contrib/ directories. Leaving these in place is a very serious potential security issue* which may lead to deletion or alteration of files, etc. Please note that until these directories are remove phpBB2 will not operate and a warning message will be displayed. Beyond these essential deletions you may also wish to delete the docs/ directories if you wish. Now your forum is installed and ready to use. Just some minor modifications to make. Now you will be on the index page of your forum. 
Login with the username and password you entered during the installation. And after logging in you will see a â€œAdministration Panelâ€? Link at the bottom of the page. Clik it to go to the administration panel. Now go to â€œConfigurationâ€? under the â€œGeneral Adminâ€?. 
General Config: 
*img125.exs.cx/img125/3312/genconfig3gp.th.jpg

Here enter the Domain Name; leave the server port and the script path as it is. Then enter the name for your forum. This name will appear throughout the forum. Then enter the description of your forum. This too will appear on the index page. Then is the disable board option. *CAUTION: This is a VERY SENSITIVE option and should be used with extreme caution.* This option is used when the administrator is making some changes in the forum or taking a database backup or doing a regular maintenance, and doesnâ€™t want the forum to be available to other users during this time. If you want to use this option. Click on the Yes Radio button. Make all the changes, take the database backup, do anything but donâ€™t logoff from the forum, or you wonâ€™t be able to access your forum ever. So after you make the changes or complete the maintenance work. *REMEMBER* to click on the No radio button in the Disable Board option, so that after you logoff, you and the other users can access the board. After you submit this option you can safely log off from the forum. 
Gen Config:
*img125.exs.cx/img125/1702/genconfigself4nr.th.jpg

Then is the Enable Account activation option. This option configures the way in which you want the userâ€™s accounts to be activated. Using none, means no activation is required and the user can straightaway log in to the forum after registering. User option allows the user to activate the account. This will happen when after registering the account. The user will get an email from the forum which will give a link for the activation of the userâ€™s account. After the user click on the link the user can then log into the forum. Admin option will make the admin to activate the account, after which the user can log into the forum. Then is the option â€œUser email via boardâ€?. This option will allow the users to send email to each other through the board. I suggest disable this feature. Then is the flood interval option. This option sets the time which a user would have to wait before he/she can make another post. Then is topic, posts per page option. Enter the number you find appropriate. Then is the post for popular threshold option. This will set the minimum number of posts required to make a topic popular. When the topic is popular its icon will start flashing. Then is the Default Style option. It gives only one option currently, i.e. subSilver, because there no other templates installed. We will get to this in detail afterwards, about how to install the templates. Now the next option is the Override user style. This option comes into play when you have more that one Forum Style or skin. This will set the skin to the entered skin and wonâ€™t let the user to change to another style the user wishes. Next are the Language and Date format options. Enter the appropriate. Next is the enable GZip option. This option is used to allow the administrator to take the backup in the GZip compression. Next is the Forum Pruning option. This option allows the forum to be pruned which means the topics which get old would automatically get deleted. Next is Cookie settings. I suggest leave all the options as it is. Next is Private Messaging. I suggest you leave the option Enabled, and enter the rest of options in private messaging like max post and all. Next User and Forum Basic Settings. I suggest leave all the options as it is as in the screenshot. You may change it afterwards. Next are the Avatar settings. I again suggest that you leave it all as it is. Same for COPAA and rest of other settings. As they are all self explanatory. This completes the forum installations tutorial. 
If you find any problem or query for the forum installation feel free to ask. 
Now a small tut for installing the styles and the emoticons and the rank images. 

Styles:
For installing styles or skins. Upload the new skin directory in to the templates folder in the forum directory in the server. And go to the skins admin in the admin panel. And then add skin. You will find the new skin there. If not then u must have uploaded the directory in the wrong structure. The new style directory should be installed by uploading the whole directory into the templates folder. 

Emoticons:
You may import packs of smilies into your board.  The pack should come in a .zip file.  First extract the contents of the .zip file to the Smilies Storage Path (To use smilies, you must specify their location in relation to the phpBB 2.0.0 root directory.  So if your Forum Index page is at *www.xyz.com/phpBB2/index.php and your smilies are located in the folder *www.xyz.com/phpBB2/images/smiles, then your Smilie Storage Path should be images/smilies.).  Next, go to smilie administration and click Import Smilie Pack at the bottom of the page.  You will be taken to the Smilie Pack Import panel.  Change the settings as you wish, and click Submit to import the smilies.
Choose a Smilie Pack .pak file - select the .pak file you want to import from the dropdown box.
Delete existing smilies before import - If selected, all of the smilies on your board will be removed.  The new smilies will then be added to your board.
Replace Existing Smilie - When this is selected, if any of the new smilies have smilie codes that are the same as any of your existing smilies; the existing smilie will be removed, with the new smilie taking its place.
Keep Existing Smilie - When this is selected, if any of the new smilies have smilie codes that are the same as any of your existing smilies; the new smilie will not be imported, the existing smilie will remain in place.

Rank Images:
This is a small image that is normally shown directly beneath the rank title.  The image must be a png, gif, or jpg image, and the path specified must be relative to the phpBB 2.0.0 root directory.  So if your forum index was at *www.xyz.com/phpBB2/index.php, and a rank image at *www.xyz.com/phpBB2/images/ranks/teh_rank.gif, then you would enter "images/ranks/the_rank.gif" to display that rank. First upload the images into the images/ranks/the_rank.gif directory then choose the image. (Note: If the directory does not exist, create the directory.)
This completes the whole tut.

MODS:
For installing MODS/HACKS on your forum, there is a software EasyMOD EasyMOD is an automatic MOD installer. It will take a MOD that follows the phpBB MODing guidelines and automatically make all changes necessary to install the MOD. Honest, it really does  
WARNING: This is beta software. Use at your own peril! 

Download from here:
*area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=15391

It also has got the instructions for installation. With screenshot. So no point in making a tut for it, as all the installation procedure is well described in steps. But still if you want a tut, tell me.


----------



## goobimama (Mar 20, 2005)

Thanks a lot dude! Really needed this. I wanted to have a forum for myself, and now I'm sure i can do it!


----------



## rajkumar_personal (Mar 20, 2005)

Thanks mate !
Immensely Useful 2 me !


----------



## sr_ultimate (Mar 20, 2005)

Rohit , I think Posting the source would be a nice Idea


----------



## imcool (Mar 20, 2005)

Brilliant, just what i needed, dos'nt matter where it's from


----------



## geek_rohit (Mar 20, 2005)

sr_ultimate said:
			
		

> Rohit , I think Posting the source would be a nice Idea


What source dude!!! I made it myself.


----------



## goobimama (Mar 20, 2005)

don't know why people keep doubting each other about the source....


----------



## sr_ultimate (Mar 20, 2005)

Hey no offence  plz 
Peace  

Well google  told me that


----------



## Maverick340 (Mar 29, 2005)

Check this site....
No ftp and PhpBB d/w required...
can make a forum online
www.freebb.com


----------



## //siddhartha// (Apr 13, 2005)

THANX A LOT !! *@geek_rohit* Awesome job...


----------



## Maverick340 (Apr 13, 2005)

hmmm...i see no one has praised me....


----------



## Maverick340 (Apr 14, 2005)

How do create more portals,or Configure my existing forum??
Its i free one...


----------



## navjotjsingh (Apr 19, 2005)

Excellent Info man. I needed it desperately. Looking forward to some more great posts from you, geek_rohit.


----------



## Saharika (Apr 22, 2005)

amanwannalearn said:
			
		

> Check this site....
> No ftp and PhpBB d/w required...
> can make a forum online
> www.freebb.com


i think it all about,you making a site or u use third patry site generator.
I think he is talking about whole the thing but toturial was  very lengthy.
any way there is another site as well
www.phpbbserver.com 
which gives a total hosted php bb forum.
Any way i know  the tutorial poster is talking whole the things
any way just that info for  people who dont know tech stuff much maybe like me.
Good tutorial.
but i think that getting web space ,opening ftp and so should have been skipped ,as i think the people who doesnt know even know about web space ftp will do all later things(or will be able to do those or like to do,in general...)
any way good tutorial
thanks
saha


----------



## geek_rohit (Apr 22, 2005)

Thnx everyone.
This tutorial allows you to install and configure a forum. It is better to get some webspace and then make a forum. Because it gives you freedom of adding some more hacks/mods of your choice, which the preinstalled-register-done forum sites don't allow. They just allow you to have a forum with you as the admin, but you can't have full access with the files. With the FTP you can access all your files. For novices who don't know anything about the FTP or webspace, still the process is quite simple, and I did try my best to describe the process so that even a novice can make a forum. If still it is difficult then the preinstalled-just resigter-voila type sites are a good option.


----------



## cheetah (May 14, 2005)

Which is the best free php host (even 5MB will be ok) with smtp support.

www.orgfree.com is cool but no smtp.


----------



## geek_rohit (May 14, 2005)

You need the SMTP for emailing support. You can make a SMTP email account for free on any other site and use its SMTP to send the account activation mails and the mass mails. Just google for sites which offer free SMTP account.


----------



## cheetah (May 14, 2005)

But i dont know how to configure PHPBB according to that.

Is that simple, do i have to edit some 1-2 config files.Man i dont know php.

I am stuck.Waiting for ya reply..


----------



## geek_rohit (May 14, 2005)

You don't need to know php for that. 
First register for a SMTP account just like Yahoo and then get the details of your account. You will usually get an email from them. And then enter the details in the general configuration. The SMTP option is in the last. This way you will get the SMTP. It not necessary that the hosting service should have the SMTP.


----------



## [flAsh] (May 14, 2005)

brilliant guide dude


----------



## cheetah (May 14, 2005)

But yahoo and others donot support unauthenticated relays.

In the PHPBB FAQ they have said clearly that no SMTP server can allow to send email through.So the only choice we have is a server with Sendmail.....


----------



## geek_rohit (May 14, 2005)

Yahoo doesn't give the SMTP support only POP3. As I said get an account at a free SMTP hosting provider. 
Try some from here
*www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=free+smtp&meta=


----------



## bharathbala2003 (May 14, 2005)

@cheetah there are lots man try 100 webspace(it has adds) or try xhost.. or try the one am using.. matrixweb..


----------



## [flAsh] (May 15, 2005)

U all r doing gr8 job


----------



## cheetah (May 15, 2005)

Hey Rohit...
I l8r found that they have just changed the functinality og mail () function to reduce spam...But its working with the forum...

Thanks again for the tutorial man....My board is up and running....Anyways i will not use it as a board but as a website.I will install guestbooks,link applications and some other hacks to make it look like a website...

Any suggestions and hacks are welcomed...

Thanks again  for the last time...


----------



## cheetah (May 15, 2005)

hey bharath...Orgfree is the best php host i have seen.U see there are many reputed websites running over there like sms2all.org and i have never seen this website down.

Thats why i have chosen this host.I have been lucky to register because now they have stopped regsitering new users.


----------



## [flAsh] (May 17, 2005)

hey  rohit go in problem man just registered my account at www.100webspace.com and uploaded all unzipped content in / directory ie /install; /admin etc.

as u told I set the permission of the config.php to 666 but whenever I write the adress of my site ie
*username.webpal.info/install/install.php a web space control panel login menu appears. 
SO what I did wrong I created the Database as well
there is also a /username.webpal.info directory. what does it contains???


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 17, 2005)

*Gr8....*

Just One Question,
How Do I Add Reps. To Dis Guy "geek_rohit"!!?
Very Nice Job... Keep It Up...


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 17, 2005)

*.htaccess File Error...!!*

I'm Using The FileZilla FTP Client...
The File,


> phpbb/cache/.htaccess


Does Not Upload Givin An Error...


> Critical transfer error


Is There Some Problem... I Checked The Mode, Its' Auto...
I Even Tried Using FTP Commander But The Same File Failed 2 Upload...
Host: *orgfree.com


----------



## devilhead_satish (May 17, 2005)

Your site ( *www.sportzforumz.co.nr ) reflects that dude. I never knew you knew so much. If only it had more users....


----------



## cheetah (May 17, 2005)

@flash - Dude try chmodding it to 777


----------



## cheetah (May 17, 2005)

@Duded - One Question----

I am fed up of installing\removing mods....I wanna preview them offline before implementing online...

What things i need to install to run PHP offline...

I guess a server like Apache,PHP and few other things...

Plz list full essentials and also some installation tips...

Waiting...


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 17, 2005)

And I Like M Stuck At D Same Place N Want To Ask D Same Question...


> I'm Using The FileZilla FTP Client...
> The File,
> 
> 
> ...


I've Already Uploaded Everythin Else In Respective Directories...!!!


----------



## cheetah (May 17, 2005)

Leave the file...

The forum will work even without the file...100 % guarantee...

The file is just to change the default page of the forum...Like if u wanna change the forum page from Index.PHP to something else....I guess this method work on apache servers...Orgfree dont allow this file cos its useless on their server...

Go ahead dude...Any other question??? Ask here...


----------



## geek_rohit (May 17, 2005)

cheetah said:
			
		

> @Duded - One Question----
> 
> I am fed up of installing\removing mods....I wanna preview them offline before implementing online...
> 
> ...


hehe
Why worry
Like u upload the phpBB files, upload another phpBB files in different folder. By this u can have 2 forums, one the main forum, the other the testing forum. Install all the mods/hacks on the test one. Now remember that while installing it asks for the table prefixes. It is phpbb_ or something like that. Just change it so that the forum can use the same old db. Thats all


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 17, 2005)

*Somethin More...*

I Left ".htaccess" And I Actually Installed phpBB Widout Any Probs...

Now I Just Wanna Know...

# Now Dat I've Already Installed The Board... The URL Is Like...


> *xxxxxx.6te.net/phpbb2/index.php


But I Want To Change D Directory Path To Somthin Like This...


> *xxxxxx.6te.net/forum/index.php


So Would Simply Renaming The Folder 'phpbb2' to 'forum' Do D Trick...???


# Second Thin, As I'm Hosting On *orgfree.com, I Don't Have An SMTP Service... So, Can U Recommend A Good One... Wid Its' Complete Info' Viz...The Complete Information I'd Need To Enter In D General Configuration Settings. An Example Wud B Even More Helpful...

Thanks...


----------



## cheetah (May 17, 2005)

1. If u have not installed the forum yet (Thru PHPBB2/Install/Install.php) then u can rename the file otherwise u cant...

2 Orgfree allow mail relays so no need to signup for smtp service.
To verify goto mass email in the admin section and try sending email.The email will be delivered to all the recepients.

any more qs????ask here...


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 17, 2005)

*Now...*

Allrite Den...
Forums Ready...
Now Somthin Bout Templates(Themes), Avatars, Smileys, Folder Images, Ranks...
Not The "How-To", But "From-Where-To"...
I've Got Some... 
# *www.phpbb-design.com
# *www.phpbbhacks.com
And I Need Some...


----------



## cheetah (May 18, 2005)

Download them from phpbb.com or the best one is phpbbstyles.com .

I prefer simple styles\themes. There are some themes that need the *Xtreme Theme Mod* to be installed. I guess if u install them the simple themes the subsilver dont work or they give some error. So avoid Extreme themes like Morpheus Extreme, Go for Morpheus Simple Version.


----------



## bharathbala2003 (May 18, 2005)

[flAsh said:
			
		

> ]hey  rohit go in problem man just registered my account at www.100webspace.com and uploaded all unzipped content in / directory ie /install; /admin etc.
> 
> as u told I set the permission of the config.php to 666 but whenever I write the adress of my site ie
> *username.webpal.info/install/install.php a web space control panel login menu appears.
> ...



  @rohit.. doesn this sound familiar!!!  m8 i faced this same freakin prob!!! leave out 100 webspace..


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 18, 2005)

*Admin Panel...*

My Initial Admin Panel Page Shows Dis....


> Unable to use socket functions.


Is Dis Some Kind Of Malfunctioning Or Problem...???


----------



## geek_rohit (May 19, 2005)

lol@bharathbala2003. It indeed does sound very familiar. 
Dunno what is wrong with 100webspace now. I have an account there, it is working fine for me. Dunno what is wrong. 
@Â«TechnoPhileÂ» as for your problem it seems some problem with the php. Are rest of the options working fine?


----------



## Â«TechnoPhileÂ» (May 19, 2005)

*Umm...*

Well, I Dunno PHP...
So I Don't Know What U R Talking 'Bout... But If U R Reffering To D Administration Panel... Everythin Is Smooth...


----------



## geek_rohit (May 19, 2005)

If everthing is smooth then great. There might be a problem in the initial admin page, as a function called there might be giving an error.
Congrats for your forum. Happy Administering.


----------



## cheetah (May 19, 2005)

Na, Buddy first leave the config.php thing.

U can even install the forum without this file. When the forum is unable to write to the config.php it will give an option to download the config.php and then manually uplloading.
All this is automatic so config.php is not a prob....Try uploading from the start...


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 6, 2005)

i have a question for all you bb experts (two rather)

1. (To Everyone) - How to you change the hyperlink location of the phpbb banner like it is done on this site. here, the banner porints to thinkdigit home page instead of forum index, which it does by default, how is that done ???

2. (To Cheetah) - I checked ur website. are you using the portal hack from smator, or some other, pls share


----------



## cheetah (Jun 10, 2005)

Using IntegraMods IM Portal...Dont try IntegraMod Full ...it sucks....

And here is the hack to change banner hyperlink.... *www.phpbbhacks.com/download/3541


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 10, 2005)

thanks, finally

really needed that


----------



## cheetah (Jun 11, 2005)

I have done nothing just used the search box in the PHPBBHACKS.com ...Its not like the search feature on digit forums that always show damn links....lol


----------



## FxBOOM (Jun 16, 2005)

If you have bought any Linux hosting service then you must be having CPanel X , control Panel .
And if Yes then its too easy to install a PHPBB forum like this ( Digit Forum is also PHPBB ) just login to your control panel , look all the icons closely there is a option of " Bulletin Board " click it . - FxBOOM


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 17, 2005)

i have linux hosting but don't have cPanel

it makes it wasy, but when i last used it on broadphase, i was denied FTP access to the directory, actually, i was'nt even shown the directory


----------



## rajkumar_personal (Jun 17, 2005)

I now will have a forum on my site as well...
THANKS dude !!


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 17, 2005)

aaaaaaaaaaaargggghhhhhhh

there's a forum on every site ! no complains though.

i'd suggest you use invision if you can handle it. first timers, yup phpbb it is


----------



## cheetah (Jun 17, 2005)

Yes u can install PHPBB forum automatically with Cpanel bt man what about upgrades....


----------



## rajkumar_personal (Jun 18, 2005)

cyberia.in said:
			
		

> aaaaaaaaaaaargggghhhhhhh
> 
> there's a forum on every site ! no complains though.
> 
> i'd suggest you use invision if you can handle it. first timers, yup phpbb it is



Umm...What INVISION ?
I mean, what is it ?
Details  required !!!


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 18, 2005)

invision is an alternate forum software to PhpBB. It's similar but has much, much more features.

*www.invisionboard.com/

^^^for more details^^^


----------



## thecyclone2k (Jun 18, 2005)

the readme of phpbb is quite simple enough but, this tutorial will help too.


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 18, 2005)

phpbb is very easy becoz complete install is online and you are explained the error's in very simple language, unlike nuke or invision, which if you get wrong creates a mess.


----------



## geek_rohit (Jun 19, 2005)

I love phpBBB. And the best thing I like about is that I is highly customizable. All the features u get in invision or any other board, most of them could be installed in phpBB too. And there are many many skins to use. And besides another version of phpBB is around the corner. Olympus. It is going to have many features preinstalled. And best of all phpBB is free and open source.


----------



## cyberia.in (Jun 19, 2005)

I just tried phpBB XS (not official phpBB) and it's really cool, brings up phpBB to invision standards, and any dummy can use it.

@Rohit, i'd like to ask how you put the news coulumns and avatars on your forum, also, how did you put in the global announcements


----------



## vishal_bhatia87 (Jul 13, 2005)

I have just created my own forum wow! its my forum techview.6te.net . Thanks for your help dude, really good tutorial. thanks


----------



## adityaksharma (Jul 15, 2005)

after installing i log in and then when i click on the go to administation page 
i get the following message please help 

Warning: main(./pagestart.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/www/adisha9.farvista.net/phpBB2/admin/index.php on line 31

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './pagestart.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/www/adisha9.farvista.net/phpBB2/admin/index.php on line 31


----------



## cheetah (Jul 16, 2005)

The 31st line in admin/index.php 
	
	



```
require('./pagestart.' . $phpEx);
```

The meaning of this error is that ur admin/pagestart.php file is not in place. 

Check this file and see if it uploaded....

www.yoursite.com/phpBB2/admin/pagestart.php ...if its there then try uploading it again...overwrite the old file...


----------



## cheetah (Jul 16, 2005)

*I figured it out..*

Now i am sure that ur admin/pagestart.php is not uplloaded...

*Proof:-*

Try links to pagestart.php file of thinkdigit forums - *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/admin/pagestart.php and sportzforumz *dhost.info/sportzforumz/forum/admin/pagestart.php

But on your site *adisha9.farvista.net/phpBB2/admin/pagestart.php it says file not found or redirect to MSN search. So ur admin/pagestart.php is not in place. *Fix It...*


----------



## harmax (Jul 25, 2005)

yeah great tutorial

but my problem is :

how do the entire thing offline so that 
i can create all the stuff offline,
test it offline,
make sure it works and then 
upload it to the server or do the same steps i did offline online.

should i use some kind of a webserver like sun webapp server or tomcat

can somebody post a real good tutorial like this topic tutorial


----------



## kjuvale (Jul 27, 2005)

hi, i have created forum on dhost but after 2 days i can see files on host in ftp client /. but when i try to acces from browser they are not there . are  they deleted or what.
Also ftp uploading is very slow on 56kb/ps connection. it take around 1 hr. to load PHPBB2 folder 
please help.


----------



## geek_rohit (Jul 28, 2005)

@harmax
You can try it! Havn't tried it offline. So not sure. 

@kjuvale
The directory size is not that much. But yes it takes a bit of time on slow connection. As for the files check the file permissions and if u havn't deleted them urself then it should be there unless someone else has deleted the files. What do u see after u access it with a browser? If some error comes then pls post it here. If no error comes and it gives blank content for the diretory then check the file permissions, still if the problem is there I suggest reuploading.


----------



## kjuvale (Jul 28, 2005)

thanks geek_rohit
but i checked the file attributes they are 744 and i am not able to change them through my ftp client.
and in browser i see a blank directory while files are there as i can see them in ftp client .
what shhould be the file attribute setting. please suugest if any setting to be changed.

and when i try to open the forum i got this error



> ERROR 403
> Forbidden
> hotlinking is not allowed!



I uploaded the google adsense first as i was not knowing the tos of dhost
but after i deleted them. can i do something now. please helpp.


----------



## adityaksharma (Nov 17, 2005)

i wish to set up a forum on my home pc what all will i need i use the abyss web server and php 5 hw do i add the databases plz tell me


----------



## knight17 (Dec 8, 2005)

You worked too hard for us
Thanks


----------



## Dharmil (Jan 30, 2006)

cyberia.in said:
			
		

> I just tried phpBB XS (not official phpBB) and it's really cool, brings up phpBB to invision standards, and any dummy can use it.
> 
> @Rohit, i'd like to ask how you put the news coulumns and avatars on your forum, also, how did you put in the global announcements


they are mods


----------



## abhishekkulkarni (Feb 5, 2006)

@ Rohit 

Thanx dude , for this comprehensive tutorial .   

However I have one doubt . 

Before starting the Installation of the forum  the permissions of the config.php file have to be obviously set to 666 ie - 

Owner - rw
User - rw
Public -rw 

But here you say that - 



> After entering all the fields click on the Start Install button. This will fill the database with the required fields and make the necessary files and prepares and completes the installation of the forum. *After this. Change the file permission of config.php back to (644 or -rw-r--r-- within your FTP Client), *after that click on the â€œFinish Installationâ€? button.



Now I created two forums , one a test forum and one for my college - 

Look at the index of the test forum - 

*img135.imageshack.us/img135/8053/snapshot11dj.th.jpg

As is evident , the user called "chinmayjog" has been registered on to the forum successfully . 

But when that user posts on to the forum let us see what his status is - 

*img473.imageshack.us/img473/3103/snapshot22mr.th.jpg

Now , we see that the status of the user "chinmayjog" is still "Guest" . But if he has been showed as having registered successfully , why is he being shown as a Guest in whatever message he posts on to the forum ? 

The reason for that is probably that the file permissions for the config.php should not be reset to 644 - 

Permission 644 means - 

Owner - rw
User - r
Public - r

If the write permission for any "user" has been set to "read" , how would any new user be acknowledged as "registered" ?

So I created another forum and did not reset the config.php permissions to 644 . And voila , it worked .....

Now what I want to know is , is my inference correct or will my problem be solved even if the permissions are reset to 644 ? 

Will keeping the permissions to 666 endanger my forum in terms of security ?


----------



## abhishekkulkarni (Feb 8, 2006)

I was hoping that somebody would solve my problem ......


----------



## geek_rohit (Feb 9, 2006)

Well first of all, config.php contains the database details for your forum, like the database host, database name, database username and password. So we change the file permission of that file during the installation so that the installer can write to that file. After the installation we change that back to 644 so that it isn't writable to anyone other than the admin becuase the settings have been made and the connection was successful to the db. Changing the file contents will cause problems, as the forum won't be able to connect to the db. So yes it will endanger your forum security if u don't change to 644. 
As for the reason why he is shown as guest is quite simple, he must have not logged in and posted as a guest. Because if u look closely the username he registered was "chinmayjog", and that topic poster was "Chinmay Jog". So probably he didn't log into the forum and replied as a guest. 
As for the config.php, that file is just for the database connectivity, the file permissions of that file has nothing to do with the user status, because if the config.php's content is changed, the forum won't work at all!


----------

