Can anyone recommend good forum software? It is for a personal site so won't have a huge amount of traffic.

My main needs are:
I don't want to have to pay for it (again, it is a personal site and I am not going to make money from it - I could live with a small initial outlay).
It must have all typical features
Would like it to have customisable skins
Must be relatively easy to install and maintain
Must be resilient/reliable
Usability is quite important
Any advice appreciated :)

I've never used forum software before so it's going to be a learning experience ... therefore something that provides a good installation guide and/or help files would be good.

take a look at phpbb.com

Thanks, look's good ... :)

no problem; there might also be others (although none come to mind), but thats what I have been using on my site, and I have found it to work pretty well.

It has a nice look and feel to it. I downloaded another, which was similar in functionality, ... but I do like the looks of this.

Open source software is a blessing.

sure is, haven't found any bugs with it yet and the support community forum is pretty good if you run into any problems

http://www.foruminsider.com has a HUGE list of forum software, most are free, some are paid.

SMF seems to be very popular lately, IMO it`s more pleasing to the eye than phpBB and doesn`t cost anything.
http://www.simplemachines.org/

I`m using IPB for my own group, but that`s like nearly 70 bucks.

Hmmm, I've had a look at SMF as well ... and they both seem pretty good.

Thanks for your help fellas, two very good recommendations.