a few questions about smf to vbulletin

[barler]

what's invloved in switching smf to vbulletin,and would much data be lost in the switch over?how long would it take ? what would be the best version of vbulletin to use.

what do ya need to run vbulletin?

how much would it roughly cost to switch it all over inculding in the vbulletin license?

thanks for reading i know there alot of questions in there but i am a total noob

[Floris]

1 - a vBulletin license, and your SMF installation.
2 - this is what is imported, assume the rest isn't.:

SMF
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0 beta
Import usergroup
Import user
Import forum
Import thread
Import post
Import Private messages
Import poll
Import attachment
Import moderator

3 - depends on how big your forum is, you can be done under 15 to 30 minutes.
4 - 3.8.3
5 - a web server that understands php and mysql, i recommend a LAMP setup (linux, apache2, php5, mysql5) get the test vBulletin script: http://www.vbulletin.com/download.php (license not required) and see if vb runs on your site.
6 - impex = free import/export software for our licensed members. no additional cost. you run the import yourself. vBulletin costs money. Version 3.8.3 (owned license) costs $180.

good luck.

[Jobe1986]

It should be noted that when importing from SMF, users passwords will NOT be imported due to incompatible hashing mechanisms in SMF compared to vBulletin. This can be rectified by your users using the reset password system in vBulletin though.

[barler]

thanks for that both of ye,really helpfull