Self-hosting?

First of all, I apologize for the dumb question. I am a newb on technical matters, but trying to learn on the field.

So, what I need to know is what it takes to self-host a board. Do you need to own a server? Say I use a free option like Vanilla or MyBB - do I need anything else (other than a computer and hard work ^^)?

 

Several hosting services offer a quick install option for MyBB. Don't need to worry about creating a database, user, permissions and uploading the files and installing it yourself. You can try out some with a small low-priced plan at first and grow from there.

 

I currently use Dreamhost, and their shared hosting works great. They have one click installs of a lot of cms, and I think myBB is the forum software they offer. Don't quote me on that though, I don't use forums. I have used their one click install for wiki and WordPress though, super easy.

Other awesome things at Dreamhost? They automate Let's Encrypt's free ssl certificates, their shared hosting package lets you host unlimited* domains/subdomains/email addresses, and include a free domain registration with your hosting.

* by unlimited, they mean they don't keep track or worry about your disk space and bandwidth usage as long as you're not negatively affecting other sites on your shared server. 99.9% of forum rp sites don't even come close to having a problem with this, and those that do are usually because of a run away plug-in/mod on their forum.

 

What i found useful for questions like this, is to just go and try it out. There's a few providers of forum-capable webspace with database, FTP etc that are entirely free. While unsuited for a live site because of downtimes and slowness, they are perfect to just figure out the ropes and experiment how to upload files manually, do permissions, database and installation of mod/skins and such before investing any money.

Generally though, you just need a website hosting capable of running scripts (for manual installations and such should be FTP-accessible) used to maintain forums and a database you can access. And as others have said, a lot of paid hosts offer to set your site up beforehand/with a quick install so it's gotten considerably easier.

 

Make sure the server provider you go with supports php 7. Some of the cheaper ones do not and will not upgrade, so you will need to move eventually as php 5.x goes EOL. CentOS 5 goes EOL at the end of March, 2017.

 

I'm not a huge expert on hosting, but I have used Dreamhost for a long time and it's had very little downtime overall and generally works well for someone who doesn't know a whole lot about php and sql stuff. I've hosted SMF and MyBB on it as well, though I'd recommend the latter more.

 

Not sure if I can link here, but if you go to webhostingtalk, you will find out all reviews information regarding hosting. Not only that but you will get special offers and coupons that a company would offer; best bet really. This is where I found the hosting service that was right for me.