I did this over weekend actually. I already have my own webspace that supports MySQL databases and php and while looking online for some pre-made forums (instead of hand coding my own from scratch), I decided to stick with phpBB (which has been mentioned above).
It was really simple to install and to set up, and very customizable. No issues with it so far. Good luck with it.
I've also set up phpBB on a site and it's great. The phpBB is big and great, so there's lots of mods/plugins that have been created. There's a buttload of themes, plus I found making your own theme is pretty simple too. So basically it was easy to set up, easy to customize, easy to use, great features, lots of mods/plugins/themes, and a big nice community there to help out if you have problems or questions.
Replies
2nd: download a forumtemplate
3rd: install the forum
4nd: customize the forum
last : use the forum
phpbb
burningboard
simple machines forums
vbulletin
other than that, yeah follow arragemonk's instructions
You will need some sort of anti-spam mod. The Internet crawls with evil robots who will find your forum and flood it with pornographic images.
They won't even be good pornographic images. They will be grainy and low-res, for such is the evil of these robots.
thanks very much for this guys, it'll make the process a lot easier..
It was really simple to install and to set up, and very customizable. No issues with it so far. Good luck with it.
-caseyjones
http://www.phpbb.com/