Possible to buy Vbulletin and then run it offline? How?

[Kerean]

Hi guys,

First up, let me say that I'm a total newbie when it comes to forums setups and web hosting, however I do have a fair competence in computing in general and can probably follow clear instructions in unknown areas (such as forums setup and webhosting)

I'm almost on the verge of purchasing a vbulletin license. However, there's lots of factors in play before I finally take the jump.

As the costs of vbulletin is a one time cost, I'm almost going to get it. However, right now I'm facing some difficulties in choosing a good value for money webhosting service (which is recurring charges per month).

I would like to, before purchasing a webhost account and wasting my monthly fees while I bungle around trying to setup a forums, hope to setup my forums locally on my HDD in my PC first. Once I get the forums to a nice state and nicely configured, then purchase a webhosting account and then upload the whole jizz up.

Is it possible to run vbulletin locally as mentioned? If so, how does one go about this? I know this "how" question is potentially going to be a huge answer, but once again, I'm a newbie as far as webhosting goes. If you ask me to "install SQL" and "PHP", I won't even know how to do that installation (unless of course its as simple as just clicking setup.exe and setting a folder for it :P)

Hope to get some help here. Thanks!

[Rasbelin]

You need to setup a local testbed on your own computer. For that you will need a web server program (Apache recommended), PHP (hypertext processing engine) and MySQL (database server software). These are all free Open Source programs, so you can download them for free. All three are available for Windows and there's good documentation available.

Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/
PHP - http://www.php.net/
MySQL - http://dev.mysql.com/

Download the newest Windows versions of Apache 2.x, PHP 4.x and MySQL 4.0, plus read the installation steps laid out in the documentation. Remember that this is something you all learn by doing yourself, so don't rush and take your time.

[Kerean]

Hi there.

If I don't intend to put my site on the net but just test it locally, do I still need a web server program like Apache?

You need to setup a local testbed on your own computer. For that you will need a web server program (Apache recommended), PHP (hypertext processing engine) and MySQL (database server software). These are all free Open Source programs, so you can download them for free. All three are available for Windows and there's good documentation available.

Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/
PHP - http://www.php.net/
MySQL - http://dev.mysql.com/

Download the newest Windows versions of Apache 2.x, PHP 4.x and MySQL 4.0, plus read the installation steps laid out in the documentation. Remember that this is something you all learn by doing yourself, so don't rush and take your time.

[Reeve of Shinra]

Yes you would still need to install apache/php/mysql to run the files.

[Kerean]

Thanks guys,

Do you guys have any recommendation or tutorials online which can show a newbie like me how to set up such a local host? need to see if its within my capabilities....

Yes you would still need to install apache/php/mysql to run the files.

[Colin F]

I use xampp which is an easily installed package that include apache, mysql, php and some other useful things.

[Spacefreak2]

If you use windows, you could use a WAMP installer (Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP). You can learn a little about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAMP

Manually, this site offers step by step manual WAMP install instructions. Even though you may still want an all-in-one WAMP installer, the descriptions of the install process here can onlyhelp you better understand the elements: http://www.puremango.co.uk/cm_wamp_97.php

I'm a mac guy myself, and I'm not sure what WAMP installer is best for you. Hopefully somebody else here can recommend the best WAMP installer for a self-proclaimed newbie.

[dogmanstar]

You can use easyphp also.
http://www.easyphp.org/

[Quillz]

Try WAMPserver. It bundles PHP 5, MySQL 4 and Apache 2 all into one easy-to-setup package. You can then control your MySQL database(s) via http://localhost/phpmyadmin/.

[Rover416]

I use xampp which is an easily installed package that include apache, mysql, php and some other useful things.

Same here.

Works great for my local install.

[Arsenik]

PHP Home Edtition is good also : http://sourceforge.net/projects/phphome/

[Zonex]

xampp rules!

[Rasbelin]

No, no. Don't end up using one of those all-in-one packges. They do IMO far too much on their own compared to how easy it's do it all yourself and learning while you do it. The documentation of Apache, PHP and MySQL are by default good enough for a newbie to do a clear install and configure it. It's anyway something you need to do on your own, because otherwise you don't learn to do the stuff yourself and soon end up having an insecure setup that works like a black box, which contents you don't know properly. When you configure it yourself, you learn how it works and know what's setup and what's not.

[poolking]

No, no. Don't end up using one of those all-in-one packges. They do IMO far too much on their own compared to how easy it's do it all yourself and learning while you do it. The documentation of Apache, PHP and MySQL are by default good enough for a newbie to do a clear install and configure it. It's anyway something you need to do on your own, because otherwise you don't learn to do the stuff yourself and soon end up having an insecure setup that works like a black box, which contents you don't know properly. When you configure it yourself, you learn how it works and know what's setup and what's not.

For a total novice the all in one packages are ideal.

[Zonex]

even for experts the just want to click click and be done with it