How to make a board read-only?

[truthaddict]

I launched the TruthAddict forums a while ago and well we've gotten a fair amount of posting we haven't really reached the critical mass we were hoping for. The guys who started the site are all really busy so we think we're going to turn off the forums for a while. However we still want to have read-only access and so I'm wondering how we can leave the forums up and accessible while preventing new posts. Stopping registrations was easy but I couldn't find a similar setting for new posts. Any ideas?

[ambumann]

Edit your usergroups Post / Thread permissions, and set them to "No".

admincp --> usergroups --> usergroup manager --> usergroup(s) in question --> post / thread permissions

[truthaddict]

Thanks. I don't plan to update the board so I'm wondering if there are any steps I can take to prevent someone from hacking it. Since I've turned off registrations and posting I'm guessing that probably helps but is there anything else I should do?

[truthaddict]

Anyone? Just looking for the best ways to make a board "hacker-proof" (as much as possible) when it won't be used for a while.

Thanks!

[Steve Machol]

Here's some things you can do to increase the level of security for your forums:

1. Upgrade to the latest stable version.
2. Do not install any hacks
3. Password protect your Admin and Mod CPs: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess3.shtml
4. Make sure the tools.php (vB3) file is NOWHERE on your website
5. If you have phpMyAdmin make sure it's password protected.
6. Also ask your host to change the login password for your web account
7. Change all your Admin and Mod passwords.
8. Do NOT allow HTML in posts or in sigs.

Note your forums are only as secure as the passwords you use and the server it is on. If the server is accessed then there's nothing vB can do to prevent potential security violations.