How complicated are forums???

I am a member of 2 forums, this one and one that is specific to my little dog which is a miniature Schnauzer puppy. The dog forum was hosted by the Schnauzer Club of Great Britain but for some reason they have decided to close it (liability over vet. advice etc.) We are a sad bunch who get quite excited when our dogs eventually crap outside but they were a good group and it was quite a lively forum.
My question is, what would be involved if I wanted to set up a forum to replace the closed one? Is there any bulletin board type software that is available as "open source"? I know it would have to be hosted somewhere but I don't think that is a problem these days. I think most of the members would be happy to spend a few quid to keep it going and I would imagine that once it reached a certain number of members it would probably be able to attract advertisers.

I wonder if Chris wants to expand this forum with a Schnauzer sub-forum??

[Box]

Well they are a pretty mobile device that you can carry around in your pocket, and they do tend to remind you to do things, not to mention cause bouts of frustration and joy. They also react to pointy sticks. Sounds pretty similar to a lot of other things on this site.

[aximbigfan]

Graham,

First of all, why do you have a Schnauzer? Your wife owns it, right!?!? JK

Secound, There are loving tons open source fourms, and they really ARENT that complex to setup, FREE too.

What you need:
* A computer with windows XP or server 200X
* Apache 2.2
* PHP
* (optinal) mysql.

if you want to host a forum youself, drop me a pm, Im a PHP programmer, and I would be glad to lend a hand.

Chris

[radimus]

You don't need any of that crap or custom programming.

Get a hosted server package and domain... for example check out 1and1.com, and look for any linux package that has php and mysql.

Then DL and upload/configure phpBB • Creating Communities Worldwide freeware and pretty common and easy to use

here is one I setup a year or 2 ago and never really used:
South Pointe Resident Forum :: Index