# xenweb phpbb forum



## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

Hey I have xenweb account but I dont know how to set up a phpbb forum.. I just want to test it out for I have never made my own phpbb forum on my own host before.. I think there is a guide on the phpbb website but it sounds hard there talking about uploading in binary and bla bla I dont understand any help on just what to do?
And after I get everything uploaded will I have to tamper with files and reupload them to change templates and such or will there be an administration panel to do all that? :-(


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

If you want to make it different from an other forum, yes you will have to change it. If you are a beginner, I would recommend using Fantastico to install it.


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

Where do I find this and how do I use it? I cant seem to find a download for it nor a guide..


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Log into cPanel in xenweb. Click on Fantastico. You can do a 3-click install from there. When installing, you will be prompted to give an admin username/password


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

covert215 said:


> Log into cPanel in xenweb. Click on Fantastico. You can do a 3-click install from there. When installing, you will be prompted to give an admin username/password


Thank you!!


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

nevermind fixed


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Look in your file manager. Go to the public_html directory. If there are any files that that do not start with a period (.), delete them. Now try to install it. I assume you don't have any other pages, right?


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

edit.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

To change the design go to the website below and drop the unzipped folder into wp-content/themes folder. Pick the theme under the "Presentation" tab on the dashboard.

To add any plugin to wordpress, insert the file/folder into the wp-content/plugins folder and activate it on the dashboard.

It is very easy to customize wordpress.


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

What? Thats confusing.. I meen how to change the news and links on wordpress.. I dont understand.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Maybe you shouldn't be making a wordpress site....

Anyways, log in, click the "write" tab, and write...this control panel area is called the dashboard if that helps clarify my last post


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

what is your url?


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

Ey man, everyone has to learn sooner or later and I have the wordpress figured out now and have a link to the forum and can add the sitebar quickflips once I make new forums. 
Thanks for the help though, this is just a test website but now I know how to do this stuff somewhat.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

sorry about that...i was just frustrated that you didn't bother looking yourself before asking


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

I was looking lol but I didnt think it would be right on the wordpress site so I was looking all around the cpanel and such, im such a newb lol.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

I was a noob at wordpress as recently as 3 weeks ago. Why do you keep editing your posts?


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

I deleted my website from one of them so the bandwidth isnt taken up.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

bandwidth isn't removed by linking to it, only when people visit it

the only real problem from linking to your site here is having your forum post being indexed by google. that isn't a problem if you make your links like this


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

covert215 said:


> that isn't a problem if you make your links like this


Google will follow that link, the only way it dffers in the source code is it has specific text instead of the URL as link text. In fact if you follow the patterns spammers commonly use on forums they actually use the link text. One thing that google looks at when ranking your pages for specific words is the anchor text in links.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

however, i've come across situations in the past where I've searched for someones sight, only to find a post of their's in a forum asking for help

this happens when the site's url is written out as text


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

I noticed on the xenwebsite it says users are online named google, askjeeves...etc. is that what you meen? Also I noticed that on some forums like cameraforums the forums are tottally ruined because like every thread is made by someone advertising and im sure its automated, how dare they ruin someones website when they pay for there host most likely.


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

bikerbcs said:


> I noticed on the xenwebsite it says users are online named google, askjeeves...etc. is that what you meen?


This is good thing as long as you want to show up in search engines. they are bots that are spidering the site so they can index it. If you want to prevent bots from spidering or even prevent them from spidering certain parts of your site you can direct them what to do with robots.txt Search for it and you'll find many pages about it.



> Also I noticed that on some forums like cameraforums the forums are tottally ruined because like every thread is made by someone advertising and im sure its automated, how dare they ruin someones website when they pay for there host most likely.


Those would be spam bots, not familiar with Wordpress but if you put up a phpbb forum you can expect them to show up. Basically they will post to anything they can. you can however prevent them, for phpbb see this page: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=393503


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

Alrighty, well does Simple Machines Forum have that problem do you know? Because xenhost has the option between either phpbb or smf. Which one would you recommend?


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

phpbb is definitely the better option. either way, you still need to take some steps to decrease spam


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

This affects anything where you can post information, some are better than others at preventing it. I'm not famialr with simple machines so I can't comment on it.

If you follow the directions and advice in the link I posted above you can all but eliminate it from phpbb.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

they are actually pretty even systems, but phpbb is much more common and easier to get support/themes/mods for


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