Forum packages

How do they compare

[FridayNight]

I want to install a forum on one of my free domains. I was looking around and found phpbb, invision power board and mybboard.

phpbb is free, invision is nice but too expensive. mmbboard I saw this for the first time. I tried demo on their side and it looks very nice. Has anyone got experience with mmbboard?

Also, has anyone tested them all? How can they compare (speed, installation, CPU resources).

THanks!

[encyclo]

The most popular forum packages around are phpBB (free, open source) and vBulletin (commercial package with full support options). Personally, I am a fan of phpBB which is a very complete solution, even though it needs a good amount of personalization before going live. There is an optional template caching option which is vital for getting optimal performance.

I'd not heard of MyBBoard before your post. Looking at it briefly, I have a couple of comments: firstly, it is still in pre-release (before version 1.0), so you might want to wait until a full release before using it. I agree it does look very clean and well-conceived. However, a major disadvantage is the license (EULA), which prohibits any disassembly or even the right to add modifications without them being approved and released by the company supporting the product. The EULA alone would make me reject it as a candidate: it is free to download, but the license is far too restrictive to be useful.

[wheel]

phpBB is a hackers delight. There are more 'owned' phpBB boards than you can shake a stick at.

Still, phpBB is far and away the most popular. If free is the primary critiria, phpBB is it. If free isn't the primary concern then skip that stage and go right to vbulletin which is something like $75 a year.

I switched my forum from phpBB to vbulletin and am waaay happier with the moderation and administration. And ultimately, so were my visitors.

[bill]

I've run vBulletin forums for several years and when I put phpBB on a friend's server I was fairly disappointed with its limitations. From an Admin standpoint vB is really head and shoulders above the rest...until BestBBS is released of course. ;)

[FridayNight]

what about this one?
[mybboard.com...]

i found it yesterday and demo looks very nice:
[mybboard.com...]

anyone familiar with it?

[ska_demon]

phpBB is a hackers delight. There are more 'owned' phpBB boards than you can shake a stick at.

Heh heh you said it. A couple of kids took over my forum the other week and destroyed it, and the community it served. Be very careful with phpBB.

Ska

[wheel]

I woke up one morning to find a post on my forum by "webmaster" (that's me) with a link to a post on the phpBB forum about the latest hacks.

I'm dense, but I got that hint.

[encyclo]

The idea that phpBB is a "hacker's delight" is wildly overrated. If you don't keep it patched, then you will risk getting hacked - same as any other high-profile software. As it happens, as phpBB is probably the most widely-used forum package combined with the fact that there are a significant number of forums which are left unattended. If you manage your forum and keep up to date with the mailing list and patch releases, you're fine.

Forum software is prone to attack by its very nature - a system which accepts input from multiple, unknown sources is at risk from being taken over. A lot of the various wannabe forum packages will have as many serious bugs as phpBB had, just that the relative obscurity of their package means that they have yet to be discovered. vBulletin has had several very serious vulnerabilities patched within the last six months alone.

FridayNight, for MyBBoard, see my comments in message #2.

[ControlEngineer]

I make a backup of my phpBB data base frequently. (using the "Backup Database" function on the Administration panel.

If the board is hacked, can it be returned by restoring the database? (I also have a backup copy of the phpBB directory, if that is needed)

[encyclo]

ControlEngineer, phpBB comprises the database and the forum files - which include the avatars directory (if avatar upload is enabled) which will need to be backed up regularly. If your board is hacked, you can patch your files and revert to a known safe database backup, but if the database has been altered or compromised you may well lose posts. The trouble with a hacked board is that you don't know what level of acces they had: it could be as bad as getting root-level access to the server. So you need also to at least change your FTP password, your database name and password, your and all your mods' and admins' passwords. If it is clear that the attacker might have got root access and, you're on a dedicated server, you need to shut down the whole machine and revert to a known good backup or do a complete reinstall of the OS from scratch (ouch!). On a shared hosting solution contact your host immediately.

So the basic rule is: don't get caught out. Make sure you're on the phpBB release mailing list, make sure you patch your install quickly (24 hours max.) after a new release, make sure your passwords are secure, etc. As I said, phpBB is no worse than many other forum packages out there, but you still need to keep on the ball to make sure you keep it as safe as possible.

One detail: if you have a modified board with extra database tables, the built-in database backup utility won't be sufficient (it only backs up the standard tables). I find it also sometimes is problematic as the database grows (say 50Mb up) - so it's usually best to use phpMyAdmin in your hosting control panel to export the database instead.

[JKMitchell]

Heh heh you said it. A couple of kids took over my forum the other week and destroyed it, and the community it served. Be very careful with phpBB.

I've had a copy of the latest version hacked - fortunately it was not an important forum so I killed it.

[ska_demon]

I didn't keep up to date enough. I missed one patch and lo and behold the little sods did me over. Oh well, lesson learned. phpBB is a nice script tho.

Ska