# Internal Forum Hosting



## Sneef (Jan 28, 2014)

Hey guys, 

I'm looking for a way to host a fully functioning forum, but without the domain name. The forum is going to be used internally and is not to been seen by members of the public. 

I can get the forum code no problem but when i come to host it, thats where im getting stuck (This is for business use). I thought of using a VPS To host, but our computers cant run VPS, Ive thought of himatchi and using one of the spare pc's as a host, but still the bandwidth that we receive is poor. 

I'd much appreciate it if you could help me out  

Thanks in advance
Sneef


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## silentbogo (Jan 29, 2014)

VPS is overkill for a forum hosting. +To run it off the local machine you'll have to sweat a bit to make it run like it's supposed to. Also your server has to be on all the time.
If you don't expect to have more than 20 simultaneous users - you'll be better off with some free web-hosting and good forum engine.
For the first part of your project i would suggest 000webhost.com. It's free, no ads, and you get enough space for pretty much any small-to-medium size project.
They also provide ftp access, two mysql databases, backups and tons of other stuff. The only downfall - if your site is inactive for over 30 days - it's pretty much gone. Speedwise I like it even better than my current paid VPS hosting. 
The second part - installing forum engine - is even easier. I believe there is an automatic installation script for PHPBB on this hosting, but i would suggest to download the fresher one form the official site.


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

Yeah i knew a VPS Would be overkill, but the only reason i suggested it is because they have future plans for things that would require a VPS  

But thanks man, ill propose the idea of 000webhost tomorrow, it seems like a viable option, the only part being that its public, and ideally they wanted it private. 

-Sneef


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

Download Xampp and then install the forum software. This has a HTML server that you can use on a static internal IP. It would be like this http://192.168.1.100/index.php


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 29, 2014)

All you have to do is install ASPX or PHP on the server and run IIS or Apache.  To keep it private, simply don't forward the ports in the router.  People will connect to it via the servers' IP address (e.g. http://192.168.0.128).  That URL works for me by the way.  I'm using ASPX + IIS + Server 2003.


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

See the thing is the business isnt open 24/7 and the power is turned off at 5 oclock everyday, and to keep rebooting the server would just be painful after a while, and there isnt a spare pc for it to run on, unless its not that intensive and i could run it off my workstation?


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

Look I got bored and wanted to show you how easy it was. Keep checking this post for screenshots as I post them

http://205.144.219.6/forum/

^^ TEST forums ^^

Install this and only add Apache and MySQL

http://www.apachefriends.org/index.html






Then install navicat lite
http://r2.computerbild.de/exec/r2r.pl?m=w-cobi;u=http://d.computerbild.de/downloads/967333/navicat100_lite_en.exe?__cbodl__=1391022347_2b7fc0d084d269811cd00f4c5006bb71&_chksum_=bdf450acef6733dd23191de86d73d05e;ct=1;thc=1;b=967333;c=1298757;tit=Navicat Lite 10.0.3;url=http://www.computerbild.de/download/Navicat-Lite-1298757.html;sep=|;tce=|;tid=574;tn=Datenbanken;tp=95|366;tc=95|366|574;tpn=Software Kategorie|Programmieren;cs=1

Once you have restarted your server/pc start up xammp and start the apache and MySQL

using navicat login to your databases and create a new one called forums like I did here but mine is called test





Then create a new user and give it host 127.0.0.1

Once you are done with that download the forum software in this case I used phpBB since it was free.

Now extract the files into c:\xammp\htdocs\whatever folder here
in my case I made a folder called forum





Now inside your new folder should look like this





Now on go to you web browser and type http://127.0.0.1/forums/install/index.php since that is were my forum software install page is located (YOURS MAYBE DIFFERENT)

This will give you your first look at the install process. Mine has already been done but here is an example. Now all you have to do is follow the instructions (less than 2 minutes EASY) and give it the info of your database you just create and then create a admin user and then you are done!!






Now this should be your end product when you goto http://127.0.0.1/forum


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

Wow seriously thanks man! Im going to tell them to look at this tomorrow to prove them its that easy !!! Thank you !!


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

Sneef said:


> Wow seriously thanks man! Im going to tell them to look at this tomorrow to prove them its that easy !!! Thank you !!



easy peasy bro. Hard part is building out the forum the way you like. To get to the main admin panel you just goto http://127.0.0.1/forum/adm/index.php

This is what it looks like


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## Cheeseball (Jan 29, 2014)

You should get this sticked now Brandon.

Title: [HOWTO] Setting up a locally-hosted web server and forum


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

Cheeseball said:


> You should get this sticked now Brandon.
> 
> Title: [HOWTO] Setting up a locally-hosted web server and forum


 
yeah he should, ive litreally just done it and it took me like 10 minutes xD!


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

Yea its quite easy. Maybe one of you guys can contact a mod to see if he can move my two informative posts to a new thread in this subsection and stickey it.

*EDIT*


I create a thread about it

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/howto-setting-up-a-locally-hosted-or-online-forum.197381/


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 29, 2014)

Sneef said:


> See the thing is the business isnt open 24/7 and the power is turned off at 5 oclock everyday, and to keep rebooting the server would just be painful after a while, and there isnt a spare pc for it to run on, unless its not that intensive and i could run it off my workstation?


If you're only talking like 10 users, it doesn't require hardly any resources so yeah, it could run on your workstation.


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> Yea its quite easy. Maybe one of you guys can contact a mod to see if he can move my two informative posts to a new thread in this subsection and stickey it.
> 
> *EDIT*
> 
> ...



Hey man im having some issues now  when im trying to install it, it keeps saying that it cannot connect to the database which im presuming is navicat. is it possible that i can use phpMyAdmin for the database?


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## silentbogo (Jan 29, 2014)

The only problem is speed. I had a setup like this a few years back (LAMP+vftpd+ssh), but you've got to have a decent upload bandwidth in order to run even something simple.
Right now, thanks to cheap Ukrainian fiber optics I can broadcast at 30MB/s on internal network and ~1.5-2MB/s worldwide, but with my experience in US, unless you have Google - you don't get much more than 50KB/s upspeed even with some 40MBps account form comcast or centurylink. 
If England has something better to offer, you should run with a server. You can even construct a RaspberryPI server with battery backup


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## Sneef (Jan 29, 2014)

silentbogo said:


> The only problem is speed. I had a setup like this a few years back (LAMP+vftpd+ssh), but you've got to have a decent upload bandwidth in order to run even something simple.
> Right now, thanks to cheap Ukrainian fiber optics I can broadcast at 30MB/s on internal network and ~1.5-2MB/s worldwide, but with my experience in US, unless you have Google - you don't get much more than 50KB/s upspeed even with some 40MBps account form comcast or centurylink.
> If England has something better to offer, you should run with a server. You can even construct a RaspberryPI server with battery backup



haha 30mbps?  Wow your lucky!!! at work were with BT and at the best of times we get 15 down, 0.1 up... talk about remote locations!


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

I just setup this server with my no-ip account so the forum can be accessed via domain

http://reaperdayz.hopto.org/


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## Tatty_One (Jan 29, 2014)

Stickied Brandon's "How to" guide, great work thanks.


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## silentbogo (Jan 30, 2014)

Sneef said:


> haha 30mbps?  Wow your lucky!!! at work were with BT and at the best of times we get 15 down, 0.1 up... talk about remote locations!


Good to have a neighbor who runs an ISP company


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 30, 2014)

silentbogo said:


> Good to have a neighbor who runs an ISP company



LOL yea I work for a ISP and I have my test forums ran off a OC3


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 30, 2014)

Sneef said:


> Hey man im having some issues now  when im trying to install it, it keeps saying that it cannot connect to the database which im presuming is navicat. is it possible that i can use phpMyAdmin for the database?


Your database would be MySQL if I'm not mistaken.  Yeah, phpMyAdmin is a MySQL web admin so that would work perfectly if you need to examine the database(s).


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## silentbogo (Jan 30, 2014)

Another cool forum engine is SimpleMachines 2. It is written in PHP too, but in my opinion looks and feels a lot more modern than PHPBB.
I just don't know if it is as reliable.


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## remixedcat (Feb 8, 2014)

Sneef said:


> Yeah i knew a VPS Would be overkill, but the only reason i suggested it is because they have future plans for things that would require a VPS
> 
> But thanks man, ill propose the idea of 000webhost tomorrow, it seems like a viable option, the only part being that its public, and ideally they wanted it private.
> 
> -Sneef




000webhost will NOT run VB or IPB. I tried that. mem limits and such are set to low and you can't override them. 

IPB requires 128MB RAM minimum in the server to run at all times. I do not recommend running forum software on your main windows install. Security and memory management and CPU scheduling issues. 

I've seen IPB MAX OUT servers with 64GB RAM when I worked there in support. 

I recommend a VPS and to use really good CPU scheduling in IPB and let me know how your needs are and I can provide assistance with setting it up and optimizing the CPU scheduler as well.

I would also be happy to provide hosting, as i got a dedicated server of my own and I can give you space on it as well. I got 4TB BW and 4GB RAM on it as well.


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