The next installment...

With an idea of what we wanted to do, the hardware to do it with, and the software to make it all happen, what could go wrong? LOL A lot!... as it turned out.

Anopenmind.ca is all about free and open source software, so it was important to use these types of software in the construction of the site. We decided on Ubuntu OS, MySQL for the database, Apache web server, and phpBB3 for the forum developer. All are licensed under GPL general public license for open source software.

Everything should have been OK, except that the server hardware we had purchased was configured as RAID 5 (more on this here), and the hardware configuration required ServeRAID 6i... I know, this is getting kinda technical, but after we reviewed the requirements, we realised that the software configuration wasn't going to go as easily as it had on the test set-up. We got the machine through POST, which was great, then installed Ubuntu OS, which was a challenge. Apache and MySQL went (relatively) without a hitch, but then the system wouldn't recognise the router. We learned a lot that day. It would, however, be pointless sharing those results here, as every configuration is unique to the hardware and software requirements.

After getting everything to work together (about 4 hours of work), we said thanks to our network friend, fed him supper, and then sent him home to his wife! We tried to connect to the server through a WiFi laptop, but couldn't get past the firewall. It turned out that, because of our ISP, we had to give the router permissions through the firewall to allow port 8000 - 80 is the default, but most residential ISPs won't allow server traffic through port 80. So, we had a connection and the design of the site forums began.

There were a couple of things with the board that we wanted to change, and I thought "Well, I am fairly well versed in HTML and Basic programming. I'll do the mod myself." Wrong, wrong, wrong. We had spent two weeks creating the forums, modifying the look of the board template, and got everything tweaked just right. When I did the board mod, however, the ACP disappeared! I couldn't access anything, not under standard log in, admin., moderator, nothing. All gone, at the press of the Enter key. So, back on the phone again to our network friend. He reconfigured phpBB3 for us, and off we went again.

I have to say this has been, and continues to be, a really interesting project. Next up... SEO.

You can see the results we've achieved so far by visiting us at Anopenmind.ca. Register, give us your feedback, take advantage of the forums... We'd love to see you there.

CUL8R