Hey guys.

I'm planning on starting up my own tech support forum but I really don't know how to go about it.
I've been told I need a few things

-Software
-Host
-Admon
-Topic

I've decided on my topic but I don't know about the rest.

For my host though I want an Australian one (hence I live in Australia)

Any ideas?

You are either going to have to decide what forum software that you are going to want to use so that you can get a host that will support it, or get a host and then forums software based on what they support. I have no idea what you mean by admon.

A typical setup would be PHPBB on a standard hosting service. Any web host worth its salt supports PHP/MySQL, which is all you need to run PHPBB, a popular free forum software package.

I'm with Groovicus, what's Admon? Google was unenlightening.

Sorry guys, my Admon I ment Admin I really need to start reading my posts before I well.. post.

Anyway guys thanks for the advice.
I'm really not sure how to go about it because I really want to get this thing running as I think it would be interesting to do. And someone recommended I should start a forum (i have no idea what they were on about since they didnt tell me what to start one about :S )

I would advise starting small using something like ProBoards have a look at the examples section, It will give you some ideas.

Free Forums, get your feet wet before running your own.
http://invisionfree.com/

Here's the one we used for our AA clan. (now disbanded)
http://s11.invisionfree.com/SevenDeadlySins/index.php

if I may offer a few pointers for you from my own experiences with visiting and logging into boards?

I suggest you do NOT have a board with an interface such as http://z11.invisionfree.com/SevenDeadlySin...dex.php?act=idx

I was recently ON a board like that ; and left pretty sharpish;for starters I found I could not see what I was typing on the screan which was hidden in darkness

the board needs to be light and inviting, easily 'read';

if you wish to 'fund' it with ads such as some forums do you need to be very careful of what ads you DO allow; one forum I am on is really only 'readable' when ALL the intrusive ads are blocked

as for topics etc, you can alwasy expand ON the topics once you have gotten started and get feeback from the staff and members

Thanks nigglenush I've got a few idea's in mind now

And thank you raw you've also helped

Also thanks Ruby1 Very fantastic tips

I now know what I'm doing for my forum so thanks for helping guys, now I just gotta decide on a host ;whistle:

Got for proboards, Ive been on ProBoards forums for about 5 years, the support forum is good, and they are easy to set up, and doing the graphics/coding for them couldnt be any easier