Tutorial on how to set up a forum (MyBB / Invision / vB) & Guide To Vbulletin Forums

[:Blob]

A tutorial on how to set up a forum (MyBB / vBulletin / Invision)

MyBB

These are some simple instructions on how to set up a MyBB forum.

First, you have to upload all the files from the MyBB folder. To download this go here:

FTP - www.coreftp.com
MyBB - www.mybboard.com

Secondly, make sure you CHMOD some files to 066 or 0777 (Read manual for files and exact numbers)

After that, you have to go to (Make sure you change the your-site-example.com to your own site's URL and /forum to the directory you install it in!) www.your-site-example.com/forum/install/

When your installing, make sure you have your MySQL username, database and password.

And then you have your own MyBB forum!

Invision

Heres some instructions on how to install a Invision board.

First, you have to upload the folders using FTP:

FTP - www.coreftp.com
Invision - www.invisionboard.com/?triallimited
Invision is a trial

Secondly, make sure you CHMOD /skin_chache/ and conf_global.php to 0777

After that, (Make sure you change the your-site-example.com to your own site's URL and /forum to the directory you install it in!) go to www.your-site-example.com/forum/install and make sure you have your MySQL database, username and password.

Good luck on your new forum!

vBulletin

Firstly, upload all the files using FTP (You have to buy vBulletin)

FTP - www.coreftp.com
vBulletin - www.vbulletin.com or www.vbulletin.org

After you've done that, edit the config.php.new (And rename to config.php)

Then, (Make sure you change the your-site-example.com to your own site's URL and /forum to the directory you install it in!) go to http://www.your-site-example.com/for...ll/install.php and install

Good luck on your new forum!

Hope this helps

Dunko

Any problems, PM me

[TooShort4]

Setting up a Invision Powered Board.
1. Get a Legit copy of IPB from InvisionBoard.com
2. Get a FTP client such as Smart FTP and upload all of the files.
3. Make sure you have a database! Make sure when you create it, you have the box "ALL" ticked.
4. Run http://www.yoursite.com/blahlbag/install.php or something along them lines.
5. You have your IPB Installed!
Now, I need to do all kinds of stuff to make it good! Where do I start?
1. Go to your forum (http://www.yoursite.com/blahlbag,etc) and log in.
2. Click on Admin Cp. Log in there.
You will probably want to start at the regular forum configuration.
3. You can easily find them.
4. Make your forums.
5. Install some skins. Some good places to get skin's are at www.ExtremePixels.com or just googling IPB Skins!
6. Wah La! Give people your forum link and have them join. It's really that simple.
But wait. . How do I get it popular? SIMPLE ONCE AGAIN! You can submit it to search engines, give it to your friends, or just go around spamming the net (not really, but if your desperate, it works)



Setting up a SMF Forum!
1. Download all the files. SMF is free. You can download them at http://www.SimpleMachinesForum.com.
2. Get a FTP Client like SmartFTP and upload all the files.
3. Go to the config file in the folder you uploaded the SMF forum to and input your MYSQL database details.
4. Run the install file.
5. BAM. Your Forum is installed!(Yoursite.com/forum/install.php, etc)
6. Go to your forum and log in.
7. Go to your Admin Cp and edit the settings to your needs.
8. Create the forums for people to post in!
9. Your done. But you can advertise it via Habbo console,submitting it to google or other search engines,etc.



Setting up a vBulletin Forum!
1. Make sure you have a legit copy and a legit license BOUGHT FROM VBULLETIN.COM AND ONLY VBULLETIN.COM.
2. Get a FTP client like SmartFTP and upload all of the files.
3. Go to your Control Panel for your host, and go to includes/config.php.new.
4. Put in your MYSQL Database details in that file and rename it to config.php
5. Go to install/install.php and run that. Input your customer number and follow the installation instructions.
6. Delete Install/Install.php and go to your forum index.
7. Go to the admin control panel and edit the settings to your needs.
8. Make the forums.
9. Advertise by submitting your forum with friends, submitting it to search engines,etc.


Fantastico:
If you have cPanel and Fantastico, you can install Phpbb and SMF!

1. Go to your cPanel.
2. Scroll down to a blue smiley face
It looks like the blue one in this picture above.
3. Go down on the Fantastico page until you see the Forums. You can choose SMF or PHPBB!
4. Follow the steps on the install page.


PHPBB one coming later. Wrote this all by myself. Im too tired to write phpbb so il write it tommorow! Thanks!

Thread Stuck - Baving

[Jin]

EDIT: ORIGINALLY MADE FOR 3.0.x SERIES BUT STILL APPLIES FOR 3.5.X

Hello ,
In this thread I have compiled some useful information who want to buy and use vBulletin Forums. In this post I will go over the basic buyers guide and some general information upon web hosting and how to stay safe.

1st Post - Buying Vbulletin
8th Post - Setting Up Vbulletin

Key:

Titles - Any titles centred indicate a chapter all left align indicate a chapter section.

Italics - Italics indicate useful information

Bold - Important information.

Buying Vbulletin

First before you buy vBulletin you must ask your self this, Should I really pay £40 or £80 for my forum? If you have just started your site then it may be ideal not to buy vBulletin just yet, as you will never know if you are going to lose out on money take habbox for example, we haven't always had a vBulletin forum I believe at one point we were using a phpBB forum.



If you decide to transfer from Invision or phpBB to vBulletin and you are worried about the number of members that you have on your existing forum and the bother for them to have to re-register, not to worry as the wizards at vBulletin have produced an importer which will copy things like this across to your new vBulletin forum.

Leased or Owned (Pwned)

Leased



What's the difference between leased and owned licenses? Well for a start leased licenses are a yearly paid for license for your forum, it costs about £40, it can be a good thing to own a leased license as you will be renewing it yearly only and thus if your site shuts down your not stuck with a vBulletin forum you forked out alot of money for. Leased licenses come with free updates for up to 1 year and will renew when you buy the next years licensing.



Owned Licences



Owned licenses are great as they will overall cost you less than a leased license if you are to be running a long-term site for over 3 years, one major disadvantage about the owned license is you still only have 1 year of updates and after you will need to pay £15 if you decide you want to update your forum, but it is not required for you to update your board on a regular basis unless a major security issue has been announced.



You can however upgrade from a leased license to an owned license within 30 days from buying the leased license.

Nullified Boards

What is a nullified board?

Proper vBulletin Boards ask you for your customer number when you install the board for the first time, if you do not come across this part in your installation it means that you have a nullified board. A nullified board is an illegal vBulletin board modified so that you can use it for free, however using nullified boards are very dangerous and risky, in the best-case scenario your web hosting account will be suspended and your forum will be deleted by your host, the worst case is not only will your board be deleted but your web hosting account will also be deleted with no refund and to top it off vBulletin may take you to the courts!



"Using a nullified board is stealing with a 100% chance of you getting caught eventually."



How can I tell I have a nullified board?



Simple there are a few ways you can tell you have a nullified board



1) During the installation process you are not prompted to enter your customer details.

2) The board you are using can prove to be a little buggy at times and things do not display properly

3) The header of each php file will look something similar to this,

/*======================================================================*\  

[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || #################################################################### ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # vBulletin 3.0.3[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # ---------------------------------------------------------------- # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # Copyright ©2000–2004 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved. ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # This file may not be redistributed in whole or significant part. # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # ---------------- VBULLETIN IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE ---------------- # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue] || #                     Nullified by WDYL-WTN Team                 # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || #################################################################### ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   \*======================================================================*/[/color]  

Instead of,

/*======================================================================*\  

[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || #################################################################### ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # vBulletin 3.0.7 - Licence Number <Number removed for my sake xD>[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # ---------------------------------------------------------------- # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # Copyright ©2000–2005 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved. ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # This file may not be redistributed in whole or significant part. # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # ---------------- VBULLETIN IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE ---------------- # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || # http://www.vbulletin.com | http://www.vbulletin.com/license.html # ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   || #################################################################### ||[/color]
[color=Blue][/color]
[color=Blue]   \*======================================================================*/[/color]  

Adding a fake number will not help stop yourself from being caught as vBulletin staff actually check their database of forums to domain names to check the legitimacy of each board. This header is so web admins can check your board for its authenticity.

What sort of hosting should I get?

Well the best way to search for hosting is by looking if they have Mysql databases and it supports php, also about 1 gb of webspace will suffice in the running of the forum with very little maintenance. Bandwidth depends on the number of users you plan to want on your forum.



I bought my unlimited webhosting package for about £15 a year this includes unlimited webspace, bandwidth, mysql databases and email addresses.

Going through the buying process

vBulletin offer a very easy to use online payment system which will mean delivery of your board within a couple of minutes, click here to begin.



First you should select the currency you want to pay in it will make it far easier to understand how much it will cost you in your currency as vBulletin is developed by Americans thus their default setting is in $USD.



Then choose whether you want an owned license or a leased license, vBulletin now use a multiple license system the more vBulletin boards you buy the less it will cost you per license.

Lets say you want to buy just the one, make sure the price is "1-2" and in the quantity box you have selected "1"





Phone support?

Not really needed in my opinion you will get a just as good cheaper response by just asking on their community forum the question you want answering, believe me the vBulletin staff will reply to every thread, as well as the experienced customers.



Clicking next takes you to "step 2" in this step it will ask you if you want a professional installation and a branding free installation. Yet again vBulletin is very easy to install and to be fair I am proud to show the fact I have a vBulletin forum (well 3) also it is cheaper!



If you need help on the installation keep your eye on this thread.



Make sure you choose your currency in the bottom right corner of the form, it will make it easier for you to understand how much you are paying.



Click Next and it will then show you your complete order and how much it will cost you click continue again.



You should now be faced with methods of payment if you aren't then you have either gotten lost or this guide has become outdated.



There are 8 ways you can pay 3 of which mean instant delivery,
these are Paypal, Worldpay and metacharge I recommend Paypal as if you haven't an account already it will come to use in the future as many many businesses nowadays use it, like vBulletin, it is also an eBay company.

You can also pay by



Phone

Fax

Mail

Wiretransfer

and Invoice



If you choose Paypal it will then take you to the Paypal screen where you will need to login and continue with the payment. After this is complete an email will be dispatched to you.


Never disclose your Customer number to anyone but vBulletin staff! A good way to make sure you dont tell anyone who shouldnt know these details is to only mention them in the Members area ticket support, Only you and vBulletin staff can view it there.

Troubleshooting & FAQS

Why haven't I received my email yet?

A common mistake people make is forgetting where the email will be directed to. It will be sent to the Paypal email address, so let's take my case for example. I paid with payment@######.org, so my customer username and password was sent there therefore my members account was addressed to payment@######.org, I did get it changed to jin@######.org by using the members ticket system, where I was asked to verify a few details and then it was changed.


Can't I just buy it from eBay or another unofficial source?


I would highly advise you to refrain from buying vBulletin from another source than www.vbulletin.com as there is no guarantee you aren't sent a nullified board, though there are ways you can confirm a user has a proper board.


Each vbulletin customer will have joined the vBulletin forums at www.vbulletin.com/forum/ if they are selling a proper board ask them to verify their username on the forum, only members who have bought vBulletin legitimately will be able to post in the threads dedicated to vBulletin such as 'vBulletin 3 "How do I's"' if the user claims he is a certain person tell them to PM you on the official vBulletin forum and also post in one of the dedicated threads. Even if you havnt bought vBulletin you can still register and use Private Messages but you will be limited posting throughout most the board.


How do I know what vBulletin can do?


There is a lovely demo set up on vBulletin which you can check its features with it is availible by clicking here.


What other useful sites are availible to me?


I recommend two of the finest,


www.vbulletin.com - The forum vBulletin use is their own Unhacked and Unmodded board so you can see what standard vBulletin can do.


www.vbulletin.org - vBulletin.org is managed and run partially by some of the folks that are now at vBulletin such as zachery, their vBulletin board is dedicated to hacks, mods and now skins. Their board demonstrates what can be achieved by these hacks and are an official vBulletin Hacks, Mods and Skins site.


Okay now I have bought vBulletin what do I do?


Stay tuned for my next addition to using vBulletin


Note: My email address has not been disclosed please do not bother wasting your time emailing jin@######.org it was purely for an example.


Stuck by Kroziun (Forum Moderator)

[:Blob]

Hm, very nice.
Although, there are instructions with it... this is still very nice.

As people say... they dont read manuals

[Tomm]

i read manuals because i am a boring person

[RLY-CRAIG?]

Good Tutorial!!!

[Rix]

Yay dunko good job

[roller-adam]

Nice Dude Someone sould Stick this

[Jinxxed]

Jin, somebody to a long time to get get all of that info !

+ Rep for your helpnessness :p

[zainx]

also if u want to find a good host for ur vbulletin post to look in the forum near the bottom as people post reccomendations and also one's to stay away from