Changing Large Forum Platform

seo impact of moving forum

[vfetty]

Hi, Wanted to find out the best way to switch forums. I have this scenario at the moment:

Server A: Windows ASP Environment running Snitz2000, Active Forum
-Currently the forum is setup as one forum

Server B: Unix PHP Environment running IPB 2.2.3, Non-live forum
-Set to have multiple forums

Note: Will not lose it's IP address:)

I am going to have Invision move over the files but what about the SEO impact? It's a big active forum and lots of incoming links. So what is the best way to do it, would setting up a 404 redirect work best?

The forum url contains this format [example...] then the Topics would be [example...]

and the new format would be this:

[example...]
[example...]

I do not want to lose placement in google, so please any help would be very appreciated. Thanks!

[edited by: pageoneresults at 6:44 pm (utc) on Nov. 12, 2007]
[edit reason] Examplified URI References [/edit]