Joe, or anyone else with an opinion. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've joined an e-mail list as part of my new job. It's for users of Metaswitch telecom products. It's unbelievable that they use a list server... so much data is lost. Regardless, I'm thinking about volunteering to host/moderate a real forum.

It's a very limited invite-only forum. I'd say maybe 10-20 posts per day. There might be two or three sub-forums. Any thoughts about which software package to use?

Berkeley, I have a few questions before I make any suggestions.

- Windows box or Linux box?
- Security concerns or policies? This is a huge issue with the core server, the web server package (ie IIS or Apache), PHP, and the forum s/w.
- Budget?
- Level of tech knowledge and available time to admin the server and the packages? Lots of packages are required - aside from an OS and web server, you'll need a DB (usually MySQL), PHP, etc etc etc.
- What features are you looking for? This is a whole conversation, esp if you need some add-ons or tools not provided in base packages.
- Is this on a private network or on that thar intraweb thingy?

That should get us started. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

In the meantime you can look at phpBB, Invision Power Board, vBulletin, SMF, FusionBB to get an idea of what's out there. I would not recommend wasting 10 seconds of your life looking at anything InfoPop offers. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />

- Probably Windows, but maybe Linux. I saw an engineer fooling around with a Linux box the other day.
- Security is an issue, but I don't know how to answer that question.
- Budget is unknown. Free/cheap would be nice.
- I'm not sure about features, but my guess would be very basic. It's really just to facilitate discussion. There won't be any membership (aside from users having to already own the multi-hundred thousand dollar Metaswitch). No or rare picture posting.
- Must run on the Internet.

Thanks for the tips on what to look at. Even more helpful is what *not* to look at. TY! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Edit: Wait a minute... *we* use InfoPop! :-/

Berkeley, one other option is to host a mail list. We can do that on our server.

You can set it up so that: list membership requires admin approval; only list members can post; create list archives that are either viewable to the public or viewable to only list members. Granted the search sucks, but you could probably Google on the list archives as well. You can do real-time and digest mailings, that's up to the subscriber.

If you don't want it to be be on the 4x4Wire domain, you can procure a new domain name and point it to this server, no-one will really know.

There would be no cost.

Berkeley, congrats on the new gig! Spill, when you can! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Randii