Cheap hosts/domain providers and creating forums...

imo phpbb is the easiest to work with and also has the largest community support.

 

http://invisionfree.com/

for forums, easiest to customize, and has a strong community backing. They are about to upgrade the software too, and you have the option whether or not to upgrade it, plus it's free!

 

Just log in, and go to their one-click install. Dreamhost has a bunch of different software that can be installed easily.

 

phpbb is one of the more popular ones because it's free. In the past, it's also been among the more insecure of forum software because of this.

Invision Power Board is a really good board with nice interface. But when they were the small guy on the block they had much better support than they do now from what I've seen.

vBulletin in my opinion is still king of the hill in terms of software for the average joe. It's got a great following, great hacks and mods, and an awesome admin panel (which has its quirks, but...).

SMF (Simple Machines) is another small free board software that is pretty good and is starting to get a following. I don't know as much about it though.

Look for hosts that offer free forums as part of their package. Some of them will offer phpBB, SMF, or a free version of Invision. Don't go to these websites that say you can have a free board in 2 minutes... when your site grows and you need your own hosting, you may find it difficult to get your forum database from the free site. People have run into this. When I looked into setting up a forum for some friends and people in my community, I looked at all kinds of software and thought about using InvisionFree. I can't remember why, but I decided not to go with these guys. It may have to do with the fact you're limited in what you can do with them - I don't remember. One of the reasons may be the aforementioned inability to take your database with you... check into it.

 

I also have an account with dream host.
Did you have to do anything to terminate this account???
I want to end it but I am afraid of it rolling over.

Thanks!

 

Uprising,

If you do not want to keep your domain name, just make a new account for $9.99 using a promo code and you are good to go.

I am also a member of dreamhost and I believe I referred you. My sohailg.com account was set to expire (I really wanted to keep the sohailg.com domain), so I renewed my sohailg.com domain for $9.99 from my existing account, cancelled hosting on my existing account, and then opened up a new account for $9.99. Then I transferred the sohailg.com hosting to the new account. So basically I now have two domains and renewed hosting for $20.

The only problem is that they do not transfer the hosting (because you cancelled it). You will have you upload all of your files again to the new hosting account.

I know there are cheaper hosts out there, but I was very pleased with the service provided by dreamhost. And I love their one click installs. Hope this helps.

 

how do you go about cancelling the account? thanks

 

FYI, if, by one-click installs, you're talking about software packages like Fantastico, lots of providers have that. If any of you are interested, check out www.webhostingtalk.com.

Also, check out www.jaguarpc.com and see if their Longhorn hosting plan is good for you. They usually get good reviews on that site and I have a domain hosted there as well - they've always been helpful and pretty quick with responses.

 

here
http://forums.ifskinzone.net/

this forum has some nice skins you can put on your forum

 

Are you still wondering about the embedded thing? You may want to ask administrators here, since we can embed in the FEEDBACK and GARM forums, but not in the HANGOUT or D&D. Maybe there is a setting or a patch?