Before proceeding with the installation process it is recommended that you determine that you have all of the software needed for the operation of FUDforum. If you would like to install FUDforum utilizing the MySQL backend you will need to make sure you system has PHP 4.0 or greater and MySQL 3.23 or greater installed. If you decide to use the PostgreSQL backend you will need PostgreSQL 7.2 or greater and PHP 4.2.0 or greater. It is always recommended that you have the latest stable version of the software you are using, since each release often fixes many critical bugs. This is particularly true for MySQL where throughout 3.23 release there were numerous fixes for index resolving which would definitely benefit your forum.

If you do not already know what PHP, MySQL or PostgreSQL version your server is running or wish to verify the information that you have,you can determine the version information by doing the following:

<?php
	echo "PHP Version: ".phpversion()."<br>\n";
?>

<?php
	mysql_connect("127.0.0.1", "USER_NAME", "PASSWORD");
	$result = mysql_query("SELECT VERSION()");
	list($mysql_version) = mysql_row_arr($result);
	echo "MySQL Version: ".$mysql_version."<br>\n";
	mysql_free_result($result);
?>

<?php
	$conn = pg_connect("host=localhost user=USERNAME password=PASSWORD");
	$result = pg_query($conn, "SELECT VERSION()");
	list($pg_version) = pg_fetch_row($result);
	echo "PostgreSQL Version: ".$pg_version."<br>\n";
	pg_free_result($result);
?>

If you find that the software on your server is older then the one needed for proper installion of FUDforum, you can download the needed programs from the web, the urls are listed below. MySQL, PostgreSQL & PHP are Open Source and you can download and use them for free, without paying any fees regardless of whether you use them for commercial or personal use.