Hi all! Yet another great PHP board. (i think, right?)

hehehe, needless to say, i have no clue. I used to program from BASICA to Turbo Pascal 7. Havent ever really touched HTML or PHP.

Now, i need to setup a small, basic message board and would like some help. The first problem i have, is that i downloaded the PHP from .net and it has no file extensions?! Did i D/L the wrong thing? - php-4.3.7.tar

When i decompress it seems ok, but the install file is unreadable!? do i have to rename it to a .exe or something?

Also, is there a quick way to get a message board rather then write it? Like 100 free sites.com? lol (i just want it up as fast as i can to start learning what this stuff looks like.

Thanks in advance to all!

I think you might've downloaded something for linux, or maybe the source code. There's a link here http://www.php.net/downloads.php that says "PHP 4.3.7 installer" under "Windows Binaries" - download that. I assume you're using windows because you mentioned ".exe." Once you click on that link, you can download the exe from any one of the mirrors. You'll need a web server before installation. Also, you'll need a database server, like MySQL, if you want to setup a forum on your computer.

If you just want a free forum, register for a free one here: http://invisionfree.com/

.tar is a linux compressed file like win's .zip.

To get the most recent php dist for windows go here...
http://us2.php.net/get/php-4.3.7-Win...from/a/mirror/

That is the binaries w/o the installer. I'm guessing your using Apache? If so do as follows to install php as an Apache module.

you can find Apache at http://www.apache.org/ and you'll also need MySQL which you can find at http://www.mysql.org/
As for the forum scripts Invission is good but i preffer phpBB which can be found at http://www.phpbb.com It's just a matter of opinion both are good.

1. Download the PHP binary.zip
2. Unpack the php.zip To C:\
3. After doing that your php files will be @ C:\php-4.3.x or similar... rename C:\php-xxx to C;\PHP or C:\php
4. Open httpd.conf
file://C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\ for Apache 1.3.x or
file://C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\ for Apache 2.0.x
5. In order for php to work with apache you must specify some thing in httpd.conf
For Apache 2.0.x
Add the lines...
I think for Apache 1.3.x you need that above and AddHandler.
6. Open php.ini-recommended from C:\php\php.ini-recommended
save as C:\WINDOWS\php.ini
Copy libphp4.dll from C:\PHP to your Apache modules folder.
Copy php4apache2.dll from C:\php\sapi to you Apache root folder
7. Restart apache
8. Make test.php in your htdocs folder and insert the following...
[PHP]<?PHP phpinfo(); ?>[/PHP]
9. goto http://127.0.0.1/test.php

If it worked you did it right.

use http://localhost/ instead of the exact IP, its always better to be able to use a name over a set of numbers.


also if you plan on doing anything productive with php your going to want to download and install mySQL on your machine so you can work with databases and such.