Member Avatar for stargate3216

Will a Windows sever with PHP and MySQL run it? Or do I have to have a linex (sp) sever?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by ovidiu

Dani AI

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Building on the useful replies from and , here’s a compact, practical checklist and a few quick tests to use before you rent Windows hosting for a phpBB board. The aim is to move past “will it run?” and make sure the host won’t block real-world features (uploads, avatars, mail, upgrades).

  • Confirm PHP version compatibility with the phpBB release you plan to install, and ask which MySQL client extension they provide (old phpBBs use mysql, newer ones use mysqli/PDO).
  • Ask which PHP extensions are enabled. Typical needs: GD (avatars/CAPTCHA), mbstring, zlib/json and the appropriate MySQL extension.
  • Verify you can set / override php.ini values or provide a per-site php.ini/.user.ini (for upload_tmp_dir, post_max_size, session.save_path).
  • Check file-write access for the web user to the cache, files/attachments and store directories; on IIS make sure the IIS user has write rights.
  • If you want friendly URLs, confirm the host supports URL-rewrite (Apache mod_rewrite or IIS URL Rewrite/ISAPI).
  • Confirm outgoing mail (SMTP) or ability to configure SMTP in phpBB; ask about scheduled tasks or web-cron alternatives for maintenance.
  • Get FTP/SFTP access and backup policy details so you can restore if an upgrade goes wrong.

Quick sanity checks to upload before installation:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

and a tiny DB connect test:

<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli('HOST','USER','PASS','DB');
echo $mysqli->connect_errno ? "Connect failed: ".$mysqli->connect_error : "DB OK";
?>

If those pass, run phpBB’s installer. Note that Windows path case-insensitivity can hide issues you’ll hit if you later move the board to Linux — keep that in mind when naming files or customizing code. This should fill the gaps left by earlier replies and make your host choice safer.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for Libertate

you should be able to find a very good FTP server for Windows on

FileZilla is a perfect example. There is a client and server for Windows.

Member Avatar for stargate3216

I had already found a sever website. I'm going to rent part of a sever, and I need to know if phpBB will work with a windows sever, or if I have to get a linix one.

Member Avatar for Libertate

If you installed Apache, PHP and mySQL then phpBB will work properly.

(p.s.: server, not sever. Linux, not linix)

Member Avatar for stargate3216

Thanks.
(P.S. Myy Speellindg suckks lol)

Member Avatar for ovidiu

Did you did it with phpbb?
From what I know phpbb works only in Linux servers.

Ovi

Member Avatar for Libertate

Both PHP and MySQL are the only requirements for phpBB.

Both PHP and MySQL will run on a Windows machine.

I have ran WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) with reasonable success.

Member Avatar for ovidiu

:) Yes I understand that but we speak here about a server not a local host :)

Ovi

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