How do I set up the simple machines forum on my website?

Answer by: George Kaloyanov, Aplus.Net Knowledge Base Support.

The Forum is a system that allows various people to post messages and/or reply to already posted messages. A Forum or Bulletin Board is an electronic message center on the World Wide Web where the user can read and respond to comments made by other users. Most forums and bulletin boards serve specific interest groups and are a good tool for keeping up-to-date on current trends in a certain field.

Here is how to install the Simple Machines Forum through the Control Panel:

Start by logging into the Aplus.Net Control Panel at http://cp.aplus.net using your Registration Number and Customer Password.
Select Web Hosting from the top navigation bar.
Next, select Hosted Domains and click on Manage Hosted Domains.
Now, select the hosted domain that you’d like to manage.
Click on the Design tab.
Click the Forum (Simple Machines) icon.
Enter your forum administrator’s password in the respective fields.

Note: The forum administrator username matches your main FTP username by default.

Select your forum contact email address.
This tool uses a MySQL database. Please choose a database from your existing ones using the respective drop-down menu.

Note: The tool will suggest the optimal database but you have the full control to select which one should be used for the installation.

Choose the Install location of your Simple Machines Forum using the respective radio buttons. You have two options here:

To install the Simple Machines Forum in your main /html directory. The Simple Machines Forum Homepage URL would be: http://www.yourdomain.com/smf/
To install the Simple Machines Forum in a subdomain of your domain name (in this case you can also modify the subdomain name from smf to whatever name you like). The Simple Machines Forum Homepage URL would be: http://smf.yourdomain.com

Note: Please replace “yourdomain.com” with your actual hosted domain name.

Finally, click on Install.