Many questions

[kvk007]

Hi all.

I have a friend who asked me to help them in moving thier FORUMS which is "Powered by: vBulletin Version 1.1.3". I don't know anything about php and MySQL.

I just know that you guys need the latest version of php and MySQL installed. The new webhosting company which i will get will have those.. So i will everything a FORUM will need.

Now, please correct me, shall i JUST trasnfer ALL files from one server to the other without doing any CHMOD changes and then the new server will have the forums working PERFECTLY so all people can see the forum??

Or what shall i do??

Is it easy to re-install the forums?? Without having any posts deleted or damaged??

Any manuals or whatever?

Please help me as soon as possible. I should move all files from old server to new server and i want the boards to working perfectly as before..

P.S.: http://216.221.167.222/vb/index.php <-- this is the site which we want to move. Also i notied that when someone presses on someone's member nick to see how thier profile it keeps always saying

There seems to have been a slight problem with the database. Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

[Cluster]

vBulletin offers to back up the entire database.
Back it up through the control panel, then install a clean installation of vBulletin on the new server.

Then, import the saved database, and everything should be back to the way it was.

[kvk007]

Cluster, how much will that cost ?? if i ask them to do that

[Cluster]

Hehe, it's free.
When I said "vBulletin", I meant the bulletin board software, not the company.

In your board's control panel, look for a "Backup databse" option or something to that effect. That'll allow you to create a .sql file on the server's hard drive.

Then I strongly suggest that you zip it, since zipping will yield about a 90% compression. Then you can either simply save the file for safekeeping on another machine, or you can immediately import it into another forum.

Note, though, that importing it into another forum will overwrite whatever was already in that database.

[kvk007]

Man, i don't know anything about backuping up or .sql and honestly am too busy at school.. :D :D

[Cluster]

It would be really good for you to learn how to back up your database regularly to a different machine -- else something catastrophic like a hard drive failure or a malicious hacker could wipe out your entire bulletin board.

On my bulletin board, I make a backup weekly, then zip it, encrypt it, and e-mail it to several trusted super moderators. This guarantees that at least someone is bound to have a backup in case of a catastrophe.