Self Hosting Forum software ?

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Kermets

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#274524 26-Aug-2020 21:07

Hi, is there a way to easily host my own forum ?

I would like to run my PC from my partners work in town or somewhere running SMF software or anythink and have

control at home ?

I joined the SMF forum after upgrading my pc to 1Tb and buying a domain to setup SMF but even the guys that use to

do this for a living there said its not easy to maintain and setup.....its 2020 is there some way ?

cheers

Brett

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#2550361 26-Aug-2020 21:12

Your post is a bit complicated. Let's try and clarify.

Are you trying to create a community based on a web-based forum?

Any reason you can't do this with Discord? Or you plan lots of sub-forums?

richms

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#2550363 26-Aug-2020 21:14

Don;t go there. You need a 24/7 support team to stay ontop of things, someone to look out for expoits in the news and patch things.

You will get hacked, you will lose all your users information to the hackers, the list will end up on haveIbeenpwned.com with your sites name associated with it, and then its basically game over for you.

Richard rich.ms

freitasm

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#2550368 26-Aug-2020 21:21

As above. Unless you have a deep understanding of the platform, the tools, etc you should not try running your own software. There are services that will provide this to you, at a cost. Also, if you plan on doing it, running from home is asking for trouble - if you use your server for emails you risk getting your IP blacklisted, if you don't use network protection like Cloudflare or others you will ended up being attacked via DDoS (or hacked as above). You will need to manage your own SSL certificates, etc.

If you only need one board, again - see if Discord works for you.

Kermets

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2550369 26-Aug-2020 21:22

thanks for the reply,

I would like a public forum for English trucks here in NZ,

The idea of self hosting was so I would reduce the fees and would not have to ask the users for money,

is Discord like discourse ? no just one forum....

Brett

side note....why cant i cut and paste here ?

freitasm

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#2550371 26-Aug-2020 21:25

You can cut and paste... Something else blocking it.

richms

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#2550372 26-Aug-2020 21:26

If you're not paying in money, you are paying in time. I am amazed at the amout of dicking around people will do to avoid a $40 a month product, so they value their time at $8 an hour or some laughable amount.

Copy and paste works fine for me on here

Copy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy thisCopy this pasted it many times.

Richard rich.ms

Kermets

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2550377 26-Aug-2020 21:32

40 bucks it huge when you dont have a job......

plus i wanted a bit of room for images and documents to keep a record of the old trucks.

is there a way to direct the files to my pc but keep the forum with the hosting company

weird my Ctrl + V does not work here

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

freitasm

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#2550384 26-Aug-2020 21:39

Kermets:

is there a way to direct the files to my pc but keep the forum with the hosting company

To have files on your PC you will need to have a webserver running on it. This means you will have to worry about security, updates, certificates, static IP, DDoS protection and more. No different than having a large part of the hosting on your own machine. Also it will need to be on 24/7 - which costs in electricity too.

Kermets

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2550389 26-Aug-2020 21:57

but its 2020......ok thats crazy.....so much open source software out there and it cant be done easy

my pc users 26watts to run so that parts fine $8.76 per year

richms

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#2550393 26-Aug-2020 22:34

It can be done easily. That is the problem.

You will then have a server on the internet that needs constant patching, updating, checking that you're not configuring wrong to allow access that it shouldn't have and all that needing to be done 24/7 in response to things that crop up on a support forum you may not be looking at all the time.

Just look at how many hacked wordpresses there are to see how easy it is for people who shouldn't be setting one up, to get one set up.

There are people out there seeking old unpatched software within minuites of an update appearing in response to a vunlerabilty being found. As soon as there is a patch, you just have to look at the difference from the last version and that will be what to target in it. Once they have the old versions, they will exploit it and next thing you are hosing a phishing site, relaying spam, or many other things which will have your connection cut off.

If someone hosts a server like that on a domestic or small business connection, that could be seriously inconvenient. Then you also need to make sure that the server with the content on it is vlanned or otherwise isolated from any other servers that have stuff on that you care about. So using the same computer you use for other things is another bad idea.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#2550397 26-Aug-2020 23:02

Many organisations will just run publc or private facebook groups these days. Free too.

timmmay

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#2550418 27-Aug-2020 06:00

Don't run a public facing website on your PC, there's too much security risk, risk of downtime, etc. Either use a service (which may costs tens or low hundreds of dollars per month), use Facebook, or get a web host and run something like PHPBB (might cost $5 or $10 per month).

sampler

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#2550430 27-Aug-2020 07:24

There are loads of free forum hosts available via a Google search.

If your looking to run the forum from home and cost is an issue you may not currently be looking to have a primary domain... So the free guys might be perfect?

Free Web Hosting and Free Forum Hosting
Webboard.org - Best free web community forum hosting provider. ...

FreeForums.org - Free Forum Hosting. ...
Forumotion - Create a free forum. ...
BestFreeForums.com - Free Discussion Boards. ...
ProBoards.com - Free Message Boards. ...
Forumer.com - Free phpBB Forms Hosting

Google for more??

Cheers

xpd

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#2550442 27-Aug-2020 07:57

I've run multiple forum packages over the years, and as mentioned above, there is a lot of admin required, and if self-hosting on your own system, even more admin and set up to ensure its secure.

If you really want to self host, then highly recommend running it in a VM on its own network - https://www.turnkeylinux.org/ has prebuilt packages. But they still require regular maintenance/admin.

Networking, basic PHP, security, and VM knowledge is required. If you don't have these, then I'd avoid self hosting.

Discord is a form of forums/IRC (live chat), I now use this instead of dedicated forum software. It's free and works well and lets me have time :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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sampler

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#2550447 27-Aug-2020 08:23

Kermets:
my pc users 26watts to run so that parts fine $8.76 per year

Sorry as an aside.... What style of pc do you have that runs as 26 watts? I assume that power draw does not include a monitor etc?

If you don't currently leave your home PC on 24 hours a day (in addition to your networking equipment etc) hosting at home will not be at zero additional cost independent of your time anyway.

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