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  1. #1

    Somewhere to host a phBB forum

    I would like somewhere in Britain or France preferably.

    I doubt for the first year I'm going to have a massive amount of traffic or need a massive amount of space but if it has a limit it'd be nice if it was upgradeable. I mainly want reliability and a little bit of speed but masses of it isn't essential. I doubt even at full capacity in a few years that I will expect more than 100 users on at peak time and 90% of the day no more than 20 or 30. i can change if that becomes the case anyway.

    sorry if this seems very rude way of asking the question but needed to get it all out of my head before i forgot anything. I don't know alot about web hosting and I don't want a company who muck me about and I couldn't think of a better place to ask than here obviously. also any advice you can give me on what sort of thing I should be looking for and whether the unlimited bandwidth and space offers are just too good to be true


    Basically any information you can give me is more than I had before you will have posted so it will be appreciated

    thankyou

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    England, UK
    Posts
    537
    Hello and Welcome to WebHostingTalk.

    All you need at the moment is a Shared Hosting Plan and the majority of shared hosting providers should allow you to run phpBB without any problems.

    Good luck with the success of your forum

  3. #3
    what on earth is a shared hosting plan? And why do I need that at the moment and not something else?

    Also what size and speed should i really be looking for?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    England, UK
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    Quote Originally Posted by Caneton View Post
    what on earth is a shared hosting plan? And why do I need that at the moment and not something else?

    Also what size and speed should i really be looking for?
    Imagine you are a resident of an apartment complex. All of you live in the same building, share the same resources like electricity, gas, and water. Shared hosting is a lot like that; on a shared hosting account, multiple websites are all placed on the same server. Those websites then share all the resources the server has to offer, like CPU, Memory, Disk Space, Disk I/O and the internet connection.

    You need that at the moment because other alternatives (a VPS or Dedicated Server) would be overkill.

    How much space you need would greatly depend on the type of forum you are planning to run, and would be almost impossible to estimate. Many providers will allow you to upgrade at a later date if you need more space and/or bandwidth.

    *Shared hosting example from VPS.NET
    Last edited by SercoNetworks; 02-23-2011 at 07:28 AM.

  5. #5
    You need a Shared cPanel hosting account. Try to get one that includes an auto script installer like Softaculous or Installatron (I recommend Softaculous) as they allow you to install scripts like PHPBB in just a matter of seconds.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  6. #6
    can you reccomend one with good customer services and not stupidly overpriced?

    With something like phbb will the server backup the forum itself or do i have to do that for all content?

    I feel a bit overloaded on info already but obviously it's not that complicated it's just the fact I'm tired.

    Ok shared hosting makes sense. Will it matter if its hosted in the US if I'm in europe? Or is it better to have it over here.


    In theory i guess if it's in the US then peak times would be different than for other people using the server but obviously the price fluctuates that way round as well

    I did look at bluehost but I could look at 10 places and wouldn't know if one is riddled with downtime and the others are amazing. I'm lost in a sea of hosts and have no clue what's what

    sorry to sound like such an idiot as well but I'll learn quickly enough

  7. #7
    or ipage or justhost?

    I'm a little bewildered I must admit

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    England, UK
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    Quote Originally Posted by Caneton View Post
    With something like phbb will the server backup the forum itself or do i have to do that for all content?
    Most providers have automated backups, however I cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain your own regular backups.

    Quote Originally Posted by Caneton View Post
    Ok shared hosting makes sense. Will it matter if its hosted in the US if I'm in europe? Or is it better to have it over here.
    Ideally, you should be hosted on servers in the same country as your target market or majority of users.

    Quote Originally Posted by Caneton View Post
    sorry to sound like such an idiot as well but I'll learn quickly enough
    Not at all, many people new to web hosting have the same questions, it's nice to answer them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sparrow-Sean View Post
    VPS.NET does not offer Shared Hosting
    Sean, I was giving them credit for the example I posted, which was written by VPS.NET, Terry I believe.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    California
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    2,786
    Quote Originally Posted by Caneton View Post
    With something like phbb will the server backup the forum itself or do i have to do that for all content?

    I feel a bit overloaded on info already but obviously it's not that complicated it's just the fact I'm tired.

    Ok shared hosting makes sense. Will it matter if its hosted in the US if I'm in europe? Or is it better to have it over here.


    In theory i guess if it's in the US then peak times would be different than for other people using the server but obviously the price fluctuates that way round as well

    I did look at bluehost but I could look at 10 places and wouldn't know if one is riddled with downtime and the others are amazing. I'm lost in a sea of hosts and have no clue what's what

    sorry to sound like such an idiot as well but I'll learn quickly enough
    I don't have any personal experience with UK hosts, but if you choose a US-based provider, most folks recommend using an east coast provider. The reason is response times, measured in "milliseconds" (thousandths of a second) are longer the farther away the server is. A blink of an eye is about 400 milliseconds, and the difference we are talking about is less than that, often the difference between 50ms and 175ms. So why does it matter? A forum will have several transactions to deliver each page to your readers, so it can add up.

    Anyway, the one east coast host I do have some brief experience with is SurpassHosting, part of HostDime.com. (I would recommend HostDime.com because they offer a higher level of service than SurpassHosting, which is designed for more experienced users).

    They are located in Orlando, FL, and have very good customer service, fast trouble ticket response and a shared hosting plan for $5 a month that would be suitable for you in the beginning. You do have the opportunity for growth with them as well, as they offer larger plans, VPS ("Virtual Private Servers") and dedicated servers. (I left them due to needing a VPS for my forums, and I wanted a central US location for the server because of my customer base).

    I run several forums and backing them up can be an issue. You are right to consider this in the beginning! If you choose a host with cPanel, I know it has an easy-to-use backup option. Click a button, then download the backup file to your PC using an FTP program or cPanel's "File Manager" application.

    You can also use a utility in cPanel, "phpMyAdmin", to backup the "database" ... all of your forums settings, posts, polls, users, etc. are stored in the database. The file you download can be easily imported to restore the backup. This is a faster operation, so what people often do is have an archival copy of the static files on their website, downloaded maybe once a month to catch any changes, and then a daily or weekly download of the database.

    Some hosts also offer backup services, but for a single site, you can do it yourself. It does take the discipline to make the backups!

    Don't worry about asking "stupid" questions. Everyone starts somewhere. Good luck with your forums!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
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    *Shared hosting example from VPS.NET
    VPS.NET does not offer Shared Hosting
    l Dedigeeks Shared Wordpress Dedicated Established 2006
    l Leading AUSTRALIAN Hosting Provider Sydney & Melbourne Datacentres
    l cPanel/WHM R1Soft Backups 24/7/365 Support SMS Hosting Alerts*
    l www.dedigeeks.com Managing Director Service Superstars

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Ohio
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sparrow-Sean View Post
    VPS.NET does not offer Shared Hosting
    We will be soooooon!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    615
    A good shared web hosting plan with reasonable amounts of space and bandwidth a one click script installer would also make it much easier to get up and running (instaling phpbb in a few clicks) softaculous is my favourite and has hundreds (165 to be exact) scripts.

    joe
    www.JGwebhosting.co.uk - CPanel Control panel, domain registration, Reseller packages And 24X7 Technical support! - Now Taking in Hosting Refugee's

    www.JGpcrepair.co.uk - Computer repair, New Systems, Software, Hardware

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by J Gwynne PC Repair View Post
    softaculous is my favourite and has hundreds (165 to be exact) scripts.
    175.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  14. #14

    installation scripts

    Quote Originally Posted by J Gwynne PC Repair View Post
    A good shared web hosting plan with reasonable amounts of space and bandwidth a one click script installer would also make it much easier to get up and running (instaling phpbb in a few clicks) softaculous is my favourite and has hundreds (165 to be exact) scripts.

    joe
    I don't speak for phpbb.com, but please note that they do require you to have installed your forum yourself. Scripts like Fantastico etc.. are not supported.

    You can learn how by installing it a local installation first, with Wamp/Xampp for example, and then uploading your finished forum once you're done styling it.

    In the long run, this is the better approach because you actually learn something instead of clicking on a script installer.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    14
    Quote Originally Posted by Sajaki View Post
    I don't speak for phpbb.com, but please note that they do require you to have installed your forum yourself. Scripts like Fantastico etc.. are not supported.

    You can learn how by installing it a local installation first, with Wamp/Xampp for example, and then uploading your finished forum once you're done styling it.

    In the long run, this is the better approach because you actually learn something instead of clicking on a script installer.
    Alot of people dont have the time to sit down and spend all their day to figure something out, especially if there's no bachelor degree earned, or alot of experience behind it. Most people want their site up. So Fantastico, and Softuclous makes it easier for people just to click and install so they can get right down to business.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    615
    really? i thought it was only 165?

    scrap that just checked www.softaculous.com "175 scripts and still more in the making !" - from www.softaculous.com

    cheers HostXNow

    joe
    www.JGwebhosting.co.uk - CPanel Control panel, domain registration, Reseller packages And 24X7 Technical support! - Now Taking in Hosting Refugee's

    www.JGpcrepair.co.uk - Computer repair, New Systems, Software, Hardware

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by J Gwynne PC Repair View Post
    really? i thought it was only 165?

    scrap that just checked www.softaculous.com "175 scripts and still more in the making !" - from www.softaculous.com

    cheers HostXNow

    joe
    I check for the latest scripts in WebHostManager

    http://IP:2086/cgi/softaculous/index.php?act=softwares

    No problem.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Chennai, India
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    now almost all web hosts offer forum hosting like phpbb and your hosting plans come with auto installer scripts, as said earlier. These installers make your life easy and could just in few clicks you will have your phpbb website up and running, check offers section.
    HostASP.NET offers Affordable, Reliable ASP.NET Web hosting India / USA | Linux plans, Hyper-V Virtual dedicated servers (VPS)

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