A to Z of building a web forum?

[Housey]

If I am starting from nothing and want to end up with a web forum hosted on the web, what are the building blocks I need to put in place?

Let's assume for the purposes of this I shall use VBulletin as my forum software and want to build this from home, what are the key elements I need to purchase and the process to get me from a box of bits to a starting point where I can build my forum using VBulletin?

I suppose the key questions are:

1) Do I need a bespoke server with server OS or is this something I can rent as a hosted service and easily upload the applications I need such as VBulletin?
2) Once I have a server, do I administer if from the server like a windows application or do I need to log on to the server from another PC?
3) What other software will I need on the server, PHP, MySQL etc and how easy, for a non expert, are these to work with and set up.
4) Any pointers on companies who make this easy who can perhaps rent me a built solution I simply buy/rent and build day one without worrying about the other 'stuff'

Thanks in advance for your help.

Housey.

 

[IS7Doji]

I suppose the key questions are:

1) Do I need a bespoke server with server OS or is this something I can rent as a hosted service and easily upload the applications I need such as VBulletin?
2) Once I have a server, do I administer if from the server like a windows application or do I need to log on to the server from another PC?
3) What other software will I need on the server, PHP, MySQL etc and how easy, for a non expert, are these to work with and set up.
4) Any pointers on companies who make this easy who can perhaps rent me a built solution I simply buy/rent and build day one without worrying about the other 'stuff'
Housey.

1. You can host it from your own server but speed/stability may not be that good or get a provider to host it like TSOhost. Tho you need to purchase vBulletin remember
2. you will get a back end cpanel for the server where you can manage files and databases, and you also have a backend for the forum.
3. PHP / MYSQL should be standard on a rented server. If you get a server they are already installed if your doing it on a home one can be a bit tricky but quite stright forward as you can get premade packages
4.theres a whole post on good providers and some of the have preinstalled software so all you have to do is type a few things but setting a forum wont take long at all 10min~ max(inc uploading the site)