Any free forum applications?

Im looking for a free forum application, similar to vbulletin.

It is for a small project and would only have a dozen or so users.

Is there a free forum that I could install on my website? I am very limited in my programming knowledge, so I would prefer something that is relatively easy to install.

Please let me know if you know of anything. Thanks!

 

don't know much about it but many uses PhpBB application

 

I would also recommend phpBB, It is a common forum script and has several free styles available to match your color scheme.

 

SMF. There are plenty of others. Hotscripts.com is a good place to look.

 

if you want similar to vbulletin then i reccomend SM forum

http://www.simplemachines.org/

 

what do you work php or asp?

 

I really only work in HTML... if that
I'm looking for something with step-by-step instructions to compensate for my lack of expertise.
Are there any recommendations for a specifically easy to use one? Thanks

 

punbb is easy to use, pretty basic

 

Also, if anyone knows of a way to password protect the forum... I would like to make it only available to the people that know the password to write or view. Thanks

 

phpBB is vulnerable to spam attacks.

 

Simplemachines.org is the best free forum application. If you can afford vBulletin use it, it is the best out there.

 

MyBB (www.mybboard.net) is alot like vB.

 

with PHPBB it is a relativley easy thing to do. All you need to do once you've installed PHPBB, and have set up all the forums then log in to the administration panel, go to permissions in the 'Forum admin' section set all your forums to be "Registered [Hidden]" and then go into the "configuration" section of "General Admin" and set "Enable Account Activation" to "admin". Then nobody can see or post in any of your forums unless they are registered, and they can only be registered if the admin (you) allows them to register. Regarding your original question, I have personally only tried PHPBB, but found it to be easy enough to use for most people.

 

phpBB is great...Also try XMB...I believe XMB is free...I know phpBB is open source and that there is a WEALTH of support on the web for it, so if you're new to forum mgmt, it's the best...Alot of people even select it over vBulletin...

 

I would definately vote for MyBB you can see one of my own forums running on it in my signature.

I am using it from last 18 months and there had not been any problems till now.

 

I think you should use SMF, it's great

 

If someone held a gun to my head and told me to switch away from phpBB I would bite the bullet.

Yeah, I like phpBB better than the others I have tried and worked with.

 

PHPBB and SMF are both excellent. Of the two, PHPBB probably has a larger support community, but I personally prefer SMF

 

PHPBB is best ! specially latest BETA version and if you are thinking for advance you can do SMF