[Forum] Help a noob plz

[kaisar1]

I very new to vbulletin. I purchased it last year almost and wasnt able to give it time. But now im serious about going for a board. Im not some IT guy or someone whos familiar with internet codes or scripts. Im just a member of many other online forums which mostly work on vbulletin.

My questions are simple any noob would ask. What i have gathered since yesterday is that i have to download the latest version of vbulletin. Extract it and remove 'new' from config.php file.

Next thing i have come to know is that i need a web host which is going to host my forum site. I searched free hosting sites but it has brought me more complications. I registered at ********** (free) and it gave me some domain which ofcourse i required plus a user name and pw.

After getting those details i came across a File uploading server (FileZilla) that never connected to the domain given by the web host. It though said that i have to register my domain with some web registrar first. (Your domain is not yet pointing our server, so services such as FTP, Website Builder or File Manager may not work. You need to update nameservers to ns01/********** for your domain. This warning will be removed once your domain will start resolving to our server (24-48 hours after the nameserver update)

I, since im very new to this business of running a forum, presumed that vbulletin automatically registers a domain when you fill up the domain field in members Edit License Details. Which i think is Not the case. Correct me please

Now do i have to register the domain i require, first with web registrar?

The domain i registered with ********** is now apparently reserved by me. The link to my domain does works but somehow it doesnt points to the server when i have to connect it via filezilla.

Do i have to buy a subscription through a webhost to get my domain registered first?

Since i have already registered my domain with **********, would buying a subscription from another webhost would register the exact domain? I dont want to alter my domain since its very exact and to the point to what i want in my forum.

Please help

[kaisar1]

seems like a unfriendly board. 29 views and no one has answered anything

[Steve Machol]

Please wait at least 24 hours before bumping your posts.

From the forum rules:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42918

Please wait a reasonable amount of time before bumping posts. For style changes and general 'how-to' questions this should be 24 hours. For specific troubleshooting issues, use 12 hours as a guideline.

Those are questions you should be asking your host. We do not handle domain related issues, only questions regarding vBulletin.

[nakedanvil]

Two hours and you're complaining? #1 rule is don't bump your thread for 24 hours. Your questions are actually ones you should be asking your host, they have nothing to do with vBulletin. Your free host might be giving you a sub-domain, like mydomain.freehost.com. Few things worthwhile are free. Many free hosts don't offer MySQL either.

edit: I was typing while Steve was posting.

[kaisar1]

Im sorry if i asked something inappropriate. Dont come jumping on newbies this harsh and this early as this is my request to you guys as well. Its my 3rd post if you people can count numbers. Those were simple questions i guess. And of course they are vbulletin related as im also a customer here. I didnt asked anything not related to vbulletin at all as my questions were only related to the procedure of uploading and installing vbulletin only.

sorry again guys, i dont know where to go again from here to ask such questions as you guys have made it more difficult for me.

[nakedanvil]

Every one of your questions can only be answered by your web host. That IS an answer. No one beating up on you, just pointing out the rules (and courtesies) that all of us abide by. You're the one who labeled us as "unfriendly" after two hours. How do you know if any of those 29 people had any answers for you? Some people here don't know any more than you.

None of your questions were "related" to VB. No more than questions about your PC is related. They are all related to web hosting in general.

[kaisar1]

i would love to say something so annoying that you wouldnt be able to sleep all night in agony. But i will abide by the rules here and will keep my mouth shut. If you cant help me, please stay out of this thread unless you become productive.

Its very simple, i dont know much about this IT stuff and i needed some basic help. anyway, this time i would say, please DONT help at all.

first impression really is the last one

[nakedanvil]

Sorry sending you to the right place to get answers to your questions annoys you. And you call us unfriendly, go figure.

[lemonadesoda]

seems like a unfriendly board. 29 views and no one has answered anything

kaisar, you need to see it absolutely differently. 29 people came to your "request for help" but noticed you had many questions and that trying to answer was not going to be easy or quick. the people on this forum (99.9%) are NOT PAID to be here... so you can't expect them to get into your problem and solve it for you on their private time. Quick questions they can. Hand holding a total noob in the 101's of domain hosting is really for another site, not this one.

And also, don't worry about the "terse language" you will sometimes find here. Many people are already frustrated with their own vB experience... so keep that in mind. They will be "short" with their answers. Dont take it personally. Also, respect the time that others give. You could have structured your thoughts and your questions much better than you did. If you dont take the time to communicate well in the first place - dont expect to receive perfect communication in return. How you rambled on in your first post was, honestly, a poor effort.

And at naked and others... do give some slack to foreigners who are trying to use English as their second or maybe third language. It's clear this guys first language isnt English. Or at least, I hope it isnt! LOL

kaisar, please take the advice of naked. What he is really saying is this: "you are a complete beginner at webhosting in general. That's obvious. While we would like to help you with VB stuff, you cannot even start the VB stuff until you have a working domain and webhosting server. So UNTIL you have that going, dont try to get VB up and running. And to ask questions about domains and webhosting... dont ask us, ask your provider"

My suggestion to you is to do one of the following:

1./ Find a web host that SPECIFICALLY supports vB. Be prepared to pay something. OR
2./ While you learn all about it, why not set up a LOCAL WEBSERVER on your own PC. For the time being, only YOU will be able to access it. But at least you will learn the basics first

#2 is what I did a year ago. Now I am quite OK admin'ing my site on an independent server.

Good luck.

[kaisar1]

seriously stop it. Let someone answer what i have asked. Please dont bother to reply this post

[kaisar1]

kaisar, you need to see it absolutely differently. 29 people came to your "request for help" but noticed you had many questions and that trying to answer was not going to be easy or quick. the people on this forum (99.9%) are NOT PAID to be here... so you can't expect them to get into your problem and solve it for you on their private time. Quick questions they can. Hand holding a total noob in the 101's of domain hosting is really for another site, not this one.

And also, don't worry about the "terse language" you will sometimes find here. Many people are already frustrated with their own vB experience... so keep that in mind.

And at naked and others... do give some slack to foreigners who are trying to use English as their second or maybe third language. If something was asked out of place - or mistranslated - no need to keep going on about it. Let it go.

kaisar, please take the advice of naked. What he is really saying is this: "you are a complete beginner at webhosting in general. While we would like to help you with VB stuff, you cannot even start until you have a working domain and webhost. So UNTIL you have that going, dont try to get VB up and running. And to ask questions about domains and webhosting... ask a provider"

My suggestion to you is to do one of the following:

1./ Find a web host that SPECIFICALLY supports vB. Be prepared to pay something. OR
2./ While you learn all about it, why not set up a LOCAL WEBSERVER on your own PC. For the time being, only YOU will be able to access it. But at least you will learn the basics first

#2 is what I did a year ago. Now I am quite OK admin'ing my site on an independent server.

Good luck.

now this answer was really helpful. It did cleared my mind to some extent. And english is not my first language either. I just learned it by time.

i dont have any experience in running a forum at all. Its just im into different forums since 2003 as a member only.

One more question from you sir, i will buy a web host's subscription now but how would i get my domain back from the free host site which i registered earlier? Do i have to just delete my account there even if i was given a sub-domain? My domain seems to be occupied by that free web host i registered earlier cause whenever i click the link to my domain, it does retrieves me an empty web page.

[nakedanvil]

There is a forum here on web hosting: Web Hosting Options
Your new host might be able to help you retrieve your domain name, depends on ownership and it will probably cost you. If it is a sub-domain you won't have to worry about it. A sub-domain will probable look like: mydomain.myhost.com. A real domain will just be yourdomain.com or .net or whatever.

[kaisar1]

There is a forum here on web hosting: Web Hosting Options
Your new host might be able to help you retrieve your domain name, depends on ownership and it will probably cost you. If it is a sub-domain you won't have to worry about it. A sub-domain will probable look like: mydomain.myhost.com. A real domain will just be yourdomain.com or .net or whatever.

thank you.