Message Board Software

[pacomphelp]

I have my site hosted on a server that doesn't allow custom cgi or Perl scripts. Do I have any other options other than having it hosted on another server?

[firepages]

you can use (i)frames to bring the externally hosted into your pages if thats what you meant ?

else short of moving to another host no.

[spl1nter]

Do they allow PHP? You can get many forums that run on PHP with no need for a database. All the information gets stored in text files.

You can get a free host with PHP here: www.freeola.com

They also offer MySQL for £3 a month.

[redhead]

You might also be able to find a free, remotely hosted forum. Here's a whole load of them. (http://www.hotscripts.com/Remotely_Hosted/Discussion_Boards/index.html) This would save you the trouble of setting up one on your own server, or paying out for a host that will have PHP/MySQL. There are a number of disadvantages though. You may have little/no control over how the board looks, and there will probably be advertisements of some kind.

Just wanted to open up another option :), I hope it helps. :thumbsup:

Do they allow PHP? You can get many forums that run on PHP with no need for a database. All the information gets stored in text files.

You can get a free host with PHP here: www.freeola.com

They also offer MySQL for £3 a month.Sorry to go offtopic... I just need to rant a little about freeola. Freeola have given me nothing but an account which I cant use because you've got to be connected through their dial-up (and I use broadband. great) And a domain which I tried to move, but then they informed me it would actually cost £20. Which sucks, seeming as it costs more for them to get rid of me as it does for me to have three years of hosting where I am.

[pacomphelp]

Thank you to all of you for your help. My host doesn't explicitly say they support PHP. Would there be a folder that would tip me off? (Like cgi has cgi-bin?) I knew about the remote hosting free ones, and I'll probably end up doing that, since I'm using a flash-html site template that I can't integrate a frame into. Thanks again.

[Nightfire]

If you can't have cgi/perl, then I doubt you'd have php. Can try it if you want. Create a file named phpinfo.php and add the following code

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Upload that to your server like a normal webpage, then go to www.yourdomain.com/phpinfo.php if you don't get a page with loads of details about your server/php config then you dont have php

[pacomphelp]

Thanks, I guess I don't have PHP, as I tried that and I got the Save As... dialog. Thanks to everyone anyway, I'll go with the remote hosting solution.

[spl1nter]

You might also be able to find a free, remotely hosted forum. Here's a whole load of them. (http://www.hotscripts.com/Remotely_Hosted/Discussion_Boards/index.html) This would save you the trouble of setting up one on your own server, or paying out for a host that will have PHP/MySQL. There are a number of disadvantages though. You may have little/no control over how the board looks, and there will probably be advertisements of some kind.

Just wanted to open up another option :), I hope it helps. :thumbsup:

Sorry to go offtopic... I just need to rant a little about freeola. Freeola have given me nothing but an account which I cant use because you've got to be connected through their dial-up (and I use broadband. great) And a domain which I tried to move, but then they informed me it would actually cost £20. Which sucks, seeming as it costs more for them to get rid of me as it does for me to have three years of hosting where I am.

If you'd actually bothered to read their T&C you would have seen this. They don't hide the fact that you need to connect to their dial-up and they do tell you that it costs to transfer a domain. You can still use dial-up even if you have BB though. I only connect using freeola whenever I need to upload a new page.

The clever thing to do though is to create/find an upload script, install that on your server and then you can upload through the internet.

[gsnedders]

You might want to try 57host (http://57host.biz), however they don't allow forum only sites and therefore you would have to move your whole site there, as for forum software, I would say if you can afford it, vBulletin, if you can't, wait for phpBB 2.1 (alpha version is only missing the vBulletin calender feature, all the other vBulletin 3 features, it has).