Easy to install Forum / Noticeboard software

bazza1603

Hi,

I look after a small intranet at work. Its hosted from a server that is restrictive to what is hosted on it.

I am looking for software thats easy to install and will a forum or notice baord so I can attach Documents.

I would prefer them to be able to see and read Word ducments easy. Anyone any ideas?

Regards

Barry

bonzer

What are the restrictions on the server?

Which platform is the server? Is it Windows, Linux or something else?

Do you run a web server? If so, which one?

bazza1603

Its a Terminal server with 2003. Users go a bit wild, so its restricted even for web access.

bonzer

Do you need to keep your data inside the company walls or would you trust a third party to host your data? There's a number of places that will host private forums/business collaboration for you so you can just use it on the web and don't need to install anything. Would something like Google sites do for example:

http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en_GB/overview.html

Alternatively, had you thought about starting small and just setting up a Windows share to store your Word documents and see how it goes?

If you want to install your own forum software, are you looking for free stuff? There's a lot of free forum software. Usually it requires a database and web server installing. Would that be something you'd be happy to do (and you'd need admin rights on your Windows server)?

On Windows a lot of people use the WAMP package which installs the Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP. They'd then install PHP based forum software on top of that, of which there are many to choose from. You could also install it into IIS which usually comes with Windows Server editions.

Dime_Bar

I am not sure if a forum or notice board would be the best option in this case. What do you atctually pan on using it for?

bazza1603

Staff notices... Attaching word documents for short periods for urgent info....

Dime_Bar

OK if the documents are not for editing then you could be on the right track, although it would be safer to put the documents in PDF.

As for what you need the post before mine explained it all. And remember IIS can be installed on a Windows XP Pro machine and the Db and Web Server do not have to be the same machine.

It is quite possible to run the board forum not on a Server OS at all but all on Windows Xp Pro.

[Deleted User]

From what you've described, a Content Management System (CMS) such as Zope might be better suited if you just want to share information and files. Just set everybodies homepage in their browser to the location of it when it's installed.

bazza1603

Hi,

I have tried XP Pro before but ran into a limit that only 5 people could access at anyone time. By Small I mean 45 users

Was hoping for simplier software that included the language install and forum software.

Regards

Barry

PaulyB71

Hi there you could try something like typo3

DigitalJedi

http://www.sharing-file.com/

Its an all in one webserver and you can select folders to share and includes simple forum which looks incredibly like PHPBB2. You can download a trial too.

Only problem is if you already have a web server and want to use the same port for users.