BB softwares & some other queries

[pratheesh_prakash]

My first question.

I plan to install a BB (Bulletin Board) on my site (not yet built) and I have two choices, either SMF or phpBB.... I have experiences with phpBB and I found it easy to manage, but it lacks some features. And I saw about SMF somewhere in net. Please help me to select between the two.

Also tell me the limitations of SMF or the advantages of phpBB over SMF.

And also tell me the rate at which the database size increase with increase of members and posts, will it be the same in both SMF and phpBB, if not whcih will consume more?

One more question,

I need to host my site on a free server. Last month I saw a post with a big list of free servers, but now I dont remember in which section it was. Please help me to reach that thread.
Also please gi\uide me to select a free server. I need the following things:-

1 ) At least 100 MB (and it shud be upgradable, I plan to install a forum)
2 ) File size limits shud not be less than 5 MB
3 ) If possible unlimted bandwidth or at least 5-10 GB per month
4 ) Unlimited number of databases or at least 5
5 ) E-mail IDs not reauired, though if they provide it I will be happy
6 ) Reliable servers
7 ) No forced advertisements and shud allow me to advertise my ads on my site.
8 ) Should not ask for forum postings to protect my account
9 ) Should allow me to send e-mails without restriction (like dhost.info has a restriction of 10 mails/hour)
10 ) Support FTP
11 ) Support PHP and mySQL

Please dont suggest me dhost/info because of the above restrcition. As I am planning for a forum, there are chances that more 10 mails may get send in an hour.

 

[Nimda]

For your second query, you might want to check out this page

And about the phpBB vs. SMF, it's difficult to answer that as both the forums have their own pros and cons. But if you leave the "large community support" that phpBB boasts of, then overall SMF seems better. Never used SMF, so I'm not very sure but a web search for phpBB vs. SMF should yield useful results.

 

[pratheesh_prakash]

thanks for the reply....but my other questions are still unanswered. Also, I dint get much hosts from the link you gave.
I tested SMF on one of the freeservers I have (dhost) and I came up with one more constarint for server selection.

Sorry, your PHP configuration doesn't have support for zlib. Without this, the package manager cannot function. Please contact your host about this for more information.

This is the error I got when selecting package manager there at SMF admin page. So, I need zlib support too (btb I dont know what it is )

 

[pratheesh_prakash]

well....I have ssome more questions and still my questions are unanswered....
plz tell me how to insert google adesense code into the forums, and wordpress blogs manually.... (plz dont ask em to use the google ad sense plugins or homepage...)....heard somewher that it i done by editing HTML templates...but how???...please help me...thanx in advance.....


EDIT:-really sad to see no reply.....please....somebody help me.......