Can someone help?

[Vishalsachar]

Dear friends,

i was wondering if someone could kindly help me. I am very interested in creating an online forum, and i have decided to lease the board for one year, and then if i am happy will buy a license.

I have very very little knowledge about these things, and if someone could help i would be so grateful! I have a lot of questions so God bless whoever can answer them :)

1. I understand that the board will have to "hosted" on my website. Therefore i wish to create a website JUST to host the board. I believe that the site i create must support php. Can anyone recommend therefore anyone with whom i can register my domain name and get webspace? I am not intending on making a public board, it is only for a few - upto 30 people only. So i will not need huge amounts of space. So can anyone recommend someone who they feel is good?

2. Is it possible to have the forum closed to everyone, and only "invited" people can join? Is this possible? I am creating this board because out previous msn and yahoo message boards were constantly broken into by a internet hacker/stalker. I have moderated a vB forum before so am a bit familiar with it, and understand it is very secure. Is it possible to have this security feature?

3. Lastly, is there anywhere that can support me if i have any difficulties with creating and customising the board after i have paid for the lease for one year?


Many thanks,

Vishal

[Floris]

Vishalsachar,

Thank you for checking out vBulletin prior to purchase,

You can buy a leased license, this license grants you the right to run vBulletin on your web site for 12 months, after which you have to renew the license for an additional 12 months or upgrade to a owned license or remove it from your web site.

You can buy a owned license, this license grants you the right to run vBulletin on your web site for an unlimited period of time.

On this web site you can buy the forum software vBulletin, you have to get the domain name and the hosting account somewhere else. We can not make official suggestions, so here is an unofficial one. You can check out ev1, theplanet.com and others - see our hosting forum for more suggestions and experiences by users.

Since security is a high priority for you, I'd suggest unofficially to go for a dedicated or managed server (solution), so you know you are the only ones with an account on the server. Shared server hosting accounts are much cheaper, but you aren't the only one on the server, multiple accounts exist, and if permissions to databases, files or accounts aren't setup properly, others with bad intentions could get an account and abuse those priveledges to gain access to your files and data. Just something to think about!

Your second question has been answered here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108100 by me.

Your last question, vBulletin comes with free support by a professional team. You can create support tickets here on the forum as well as in the members area > support forms (more private). We will answer your questions to help you setup forums, users, permissions, etc.

If you require any further information, feel free to ask!