Computer Network Forum

[Wood_workur]

Is is possible to have a forum like this running over a computer network, without having a website to host it?

[LinuxRandal]

I haven't looked at what is the software Sam uses. But you can run one of these on an internal network! You WILL still need a server, just not an internet server. You will need an intranet server, wether you use, newsgroup, webserver, or whatever, just depends on what you decide you need.



If your going where I think your going with this, no, you wouldn't be paying a hosting fee.

[Wood_workur]

could I use a computer as a server, just keep it running?

[JR]

You've aske a question that has a pretty extensive answer!

The short version is that, yes, you can set up a forum on a computer and just keep it running. If you intend to provide access for people coming from the internet, though, you have to have a permanent IP address, which costs extra money from your ISP.

You might try a google search for "client/server architecture" or "web server" or "web hosting" to get an idea of the basics.

Then you might want to study Sam's activities over the last few days and forget about this all together!

JR

[Kristofor]

You've aske a question that has a pretty extensive answer!

You might try a google search for "client/server architecture" or "web server" or "web hosting" to get an idea of the basics.

Then you might want to study Sam's activities over the last few days and forget about this all together!

JR

Ah, too funny. Hopefully our fearless leader is laughing about it rather than the alternatives!

Seriously though, setting up a new web forum on an internally hosted box is a snap if you have even a moderate amount of computer/network background. Worst case scenario you're not out anything but a bit of time as there was no data to lose, no user expectations, and so forth.

For a small outfit it may take a little time, but it's inexpensive if that's your objective. Even a very low-end PC will work fine as your sever, though you probably want to be running at least XP or 2K if you're looking at a windows platform (no ME, NT4, or 9x even though they can be made to work with some products). Some forum systems use flat files, but most require a back-end DB of some flavor. Of the non-proprietary type MySQL is well loved due to the price tag.

As this week's experience has shown us it's the integration / upgrade / migration / etc. activities that can be a killer. Often when you flip the switch there's not an easy way to go back. But for fun and learning, by all means throw together something and give it a shot.

Kristofor.