You will note that the OopSchool forum is driven by bhpBB http://www.phpbb.com/ . So we have some experience with that forum software since version 2.*. We are from Norway and have also some experience with installing and running phpBB in another language. You find most of what you need on the site http://www.phpbb.com/ like the quick install guide: http://www.phpbb.com/community/docs/INS ... ickinstall We have a fast remark to that quide. Under the heading Database settings, you will note the following line:
Our experience is that we have to input localhost there. Other hosters may have chosen another solution.The Database server hostname or DSN - the address of the database server.
phpBB stands for phpBulletinBoard. A bulletin board is a place where important short messages are put in the eye of the public.
Souece: https://www.packtpub.com/phpBB/bookAn online bulletin board in essence is an Internet-enabled version of the bulletin boards found in stores and other public areas. It's basically just a place where people leave messages for others to read. Well, the online bulletin board applications have become much more powerful and sophisticated than that, but the general principle is the same. phpBB is one of the most popular free software that implement the bulletin board idea on the Web today.
A note on hacking. Some years ago we had on of our forums hacked. But we had backups, but not regular so one time we lost thousand of members on our old forum, http://www.forumnorway.com/. The database is the most critical part that you will not loose or have corrupted. Backing up the database and the file system is therefore critical. We don't repeat that procedure here since it is explained in the sticky posts in the wordpress forum: http://www.oopschool.com/phpBB3/viewtop ... f=18&t=190 There are related sticky threads in that forum and here: http://www.oopschool.com/phpBB3/viewtop ... f=11&t=174 if you want to set up a test platform for your forum. phpBB is a PHP script, so the better you understand php, the better you will be able to make your own templates, modifications and hacks.
Forum spam is still a problem. As an example a version of this forum was put on the internet some years ago. We only posted a few posts and did not care much about the forum. After a while there was more than 11 000 posts on the forum, most of them spam. We found it easiest to delete the whole forum and reinstall it. It took a few hours and we lost the few original posts, since we did not take the time to locate them in the database. So the message is. Take regular backups of your database and file system as explained in the WordPress thread linked to above.
Downloads:
http://www.phpbb.com/downloads/
Language packs:
http://www.phpbb.com/languages/
http://www.phpbb.com/community/docs/README.html#i18n
Example for Norwegian members / visitors:
Installation guide in Norwegian:
http://phpbb.no/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5612
Upgrade guide from 2.0 to 3.0 in Norwegian.
http://phpbb.no/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=5613
Useful links:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/
http://blog.phpbb.com/
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/