Need info on web hosting for forums

Fuhr_Andrew · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hi, I'm a newbie when it comes to web hosting and I wanna start a forum but I'm not totally sure what's best for me.
First of all, I'd prefer starting out with some easy to use (but with a fair number of options to work with) and preferably free (for now at least).
I created a forum using one of the many providers who run their forums with Invision Power Board. I chose this specific server (hosted-forum.com) because I have used forums from them before and even moderated one and most of the forums I frequent run on Invision and it seems quite user friendly.

I'd like to hear some opinions on what you guys think of some of the other possibilties out there for me..... some that offers a good number of tools but easy to work with. I noticed in a couple other threads that people also speak highly of phpbb and VB. phpbb seems to require downloading software onto your computer so I'm not sure if I could do that haha...... not very good with html stuff. VB seems to be paid but I'm unaware if there are web hosters that use the VB engine to offer free hosting.

One final question..... if I were to use a web hoster that uses Invision Power Board's engine and later on I decide to purchase web hosting, namely, thru Invision, themselves, would they normally help me transfer the data from the previous server or would I have to get the backups directly from my original host (namely, hosted-foorum.com)?

Thanks for any feedback you may give me!!

Fuhr_Andrew · (#2 (**permalink**))

Also, the site would possibly have some foreign language content cus it's about winter sports in europe and would include people from across Europe who may not be 100% fluent in english.
I noticed on one host, invisionfree, their guidelines state that the forum must be in english and even though they would probably have been my first choice, that guideline kind of pushed me away cus I wouldn't want to see the forum shut down.

wanga · (#3 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuhr_Andrew

Also, the site would possibly have some foreign language content cus it's about winter sports in europe and would include people from across Europe who may not be 100% fluent in english.
I noticed on one host, invisionfree, their guidelines state that the forum must be in english and even though they would probably have been my first choice, that guideline kind of pushed me away cus I wouldn't want to see the forum shut down.

You can use phpBB or pay for vbulletin/invision

wanga · (#4 (**permalink**))

As an alternative you can go with my company, we can help you out every step of the way and help you setup the forums.