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Phorum 5 Installation instructions
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==================================
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Contents:
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1. Requirements
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2. Quickstart guide
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3. Detailed installation instructions
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   3.1 Download Phorum
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   3.2 Unpack the downloaded archive
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   3.3 Place the Phorum files in your website's document root
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   3.4 Create a database and a database user
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   3.5 Configure the database access
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   3.6 Run the web based installer
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   3.7 Things to do after installing Phorum
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4. Additional issues
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   4.1 Additional issues for UNIX (Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.)
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       4.1.2 Cache directory
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   4.2 Additional issues for Windows
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       4.2.1 Cache directory
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       4.2.2 Problems sending mail to end-users
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       4.2.3 Date formatting
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5. Support
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1. Requirements
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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   Requirements for running Phorum are:
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   * A webserver;
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   * PHP, version 4 or above;
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   * A MySQL server, version 4 or above.
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   If you do not run your own website, but have hosted your website with
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   a hosting provider, then please ask your hosting provider if your
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   account meets these requirements.
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2. Quickstart guide:
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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   This is the quickstart guide for installing Phorum, aimed at people that
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   are used to working with websites, PHP and databases. If you are having
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   problems following this guide, then please read chapter 3 instead.
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   1. Unpack Phorum into a directory below your website's document root;
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   2. Create a database and a full-access database user for that database;
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   3. Edit include/db/config.php.sample, save it as include/db/config.php;
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   4. Open {phorum url}/admin.php in your web browser and finish the install.
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3. Detailed installation instructions
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 3.1 Download Phorum
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 -------------------
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   If you haven't already done so, download the latest Phorum distribution
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   from http://phorum.org/downloads.php
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 3.2 Unpack the downloaded archive
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 ---------------------------------
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   From Windows:
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   If you have downloaded the .zip file, you can extract the
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   files from that archive directly using Windows XP's zipfile support.
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   If you downloaded the .tar.gz file, you will have to download an
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   appropriate tool for unpacking, e.g. WinZip (http://www.winzip.com/).
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   From UNIX:
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   If you have access to a UNIX shell, you can unpack the .tar.gz
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   archive using the following command:
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   shell> tar xvzf phorum-x.y.z.tar.gz
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   Or if the tar program on your system does not support the -z flag:
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   shell> gunzip phorum-x-y-z.tar.gz
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   shell> tar xvf phorum-x.y.z.tar
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 3.3 Place the Phorum files in your website's document root
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 ----------------------------------------------------------
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   The document root for a website is the directory in which your site's
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   web pages are stored. If your website's URL is "http://www.example.com"
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   and you place the Phorum files in a directory called "forum" inside
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   your document root, your Phorum installation will be available at the
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   URL "http://www.example.com/forum". From now on, we will name this
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   URL simply {phorum url}. So if you see {phorum url}/admin.php, using the
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   example we mean http://www.example.com/forum/admin.php
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   If the webserver is running on the same system as where you have
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   unpacked the downloaded archive, you can move the unpacked files
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   to your website's document root.
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   If the webserver is running on another system, you will have to upload
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   the files to your website's document root. In most cases, you will use
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   FTP for this, but some hosting providers require SCP (secure copy,
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   which is more secure than FTP). If you do not know how or where to
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   upload the Phorum files, please contact your hosting provider.
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   Security note:
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   (simply ignore this if it does not make sense to you)
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   There are software packages that require you to make files writable
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   for the webserver (using the infamous "chmod 777"). DO NOT DO THIS
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   FOR ANY OF THE PHORUM FILES. The webserver only needs read access on
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   the disctribution files, because all dynamic data is stored in the
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   database. If you run into problems running Phorum, it will never be
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   because you "forgot" to do "chmod 777" on any the Phorum files.
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 3.4 Create a database and a database user
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 -----------------------------------------
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   Phorum stores all its data in a database. So you now need to create
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   a database. Officially, only the MySQL database server is supported
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   by Phorum, so we recommend to use MySQL whenever possible.
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   If you have hosted your site with a hosting provider, then ask
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   your hosting provider to setup the database and a full access
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   database user for you.
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   If you run your own database server, then you will have to create
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   the database and the user yourself. If you are using a control
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   panel, like phpmyadmin, then use that control panel to create
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   them. Else, you can use the mysql prompt to create the database
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   by issuing commands like:
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   mysql> CREATE DATABASE phorum;
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   mysql> GRANT ALL ON phorum.* TO user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY password;
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   Of course, for security reasons you would use your own user and
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   password instead.
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   If you are unsure how to create a database and a database user,
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   please refer to your system documentation.
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 3.5 Configure the database access
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 ---------------------------------
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   After setting up the database, you'll have to tell Phorum how the
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   database can be accessed. This configuration is put in the file
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   include/db/config.php inside your Phorum directory. This file is
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   not in the distribution. Only a differently named sample file is
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   included.
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   First, copy or rename the file "include/db/config.php.sample" to
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   "include/db/config.php". Now edit the config.php file to match the
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   access settings for the database that was created in step 4.
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   If you run your website on a remote server, then either edit
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   the config.php file directly on that server (e.g. through a
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   UNIX prompt) or upload the file to the correct location after
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   editing it locally.
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 3.6 Run the web based installer
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 -------------------------------
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   Now all is in place to run Phorum's installer script.
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   Open {phorum url}/admin.php using your web browser. This is the admin
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   interface, which will automatically detect that a fresh install has
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   to be performed.
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   Follow the instructions on screen to finish the Phorum installation.
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 3.7 Things to do after installing Phorum
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 ----------------------------------------
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   Now the installation is complete, test if the forum is working
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   correctly by opening {phorum url} in your web browser. If you run
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   into problems, please go to {forum url}/admin.php and click on
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   "System Sanity Checks" in the menu. This page will perform a couple
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   of system checks to rule out some basic problems. If problems are
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   found, please follow the instructions from the sanity checks page
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   to solve them.
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   Login into the admin interface at {phorum url}/admin.php and check
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   out what settings can be done to customize Phorum to your likings.
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   Customize the looks of Phorum to your needs by creating a custom
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   template. Instructions can be found in docs/creating_templates.txt.
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   Read the additional issues for your system (below), docs/faq.txt
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   and any other files in the docs dir that may help you.
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4. Additional issues
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 4.1 Additional issues for UNIX (Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.)
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 ----------------------------------------------------------
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  4.1.2 Cache directory
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  ---------------------
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   In step 5 above (Edit Settings) There is an entry called Cache
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   Directory. the installer should set that to /tmp if you appear to
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   be running a *nix system. This will keep compiled PHP versions of
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   your templates in /tmp. You can change the cache dir if you do not
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   want to have your files sitting in /tmp on the server or if you see
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   error messages like:
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   Warning:
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   fopen(/tmp/tpl-default-header-a72fb9dd20915e5953aa9b07d3eb3871.php):
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   failed to open stream: Permission denied in
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   /path/to/phorum/include/templates.php on line 184
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   If you change the the Cache Directory, the best bet is to set it
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   to ./cache and make that dir (that is already there in the Phorum dir)
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   writable by the web server. Most likely this means making it world
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   writeable (chmod 777). If you do not have access to the shell prompt
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   of the server and are using only FTP to access the server, please see
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   your FTP clients help on setting the permissions for a directory.
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 4.2 Additional issues for Windows
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 ---------------------------------
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  4.2.1 Cache directory
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  ---------------------
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   In step 5 above (Edit Settings) There is an entry called Cache
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   Directory. The installer should set that to C:\Windows\Temp, if it
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   can detect you are using Windows. This should work for most modern
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   Windows versions. If it does not, you will see error messages like:
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   Warning:
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   fopen(c:\windows\temp\tpl-default-header-a72fb9dd209153aa9b07d3eb3871.php):
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   failed to open stream: Permission denied in
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   c:\path\to\phorum\include\templates.php on line 184
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   You will need to change the Cache Directory. The Phorum team is not
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   very familiar with Windows as a web server platform. We can only tell
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   you that it will need to be something that the web server can write to.
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   Changing the Cache Directory to ./cache has worked for some.
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  4.2.2 Problems sending mail to end-users
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  ----------------------------------------
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   PHP has to be configured correctly on Windows systems to be able to
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   send out mail. If this is not done, you might get errors and mail
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   will not arrive. What you need to do is edit the file "php.ini" (this
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   file holds the configuration for PHP). Find the sections that is called
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   "[mail function]". In this section, set the parameter "SMTP" to the
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   hostname or IP-address of the your SMTP server. If you do not know your
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   SMTP server, please ask your internet access provider. After this,
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   PHP will know what mailserver to use for sending out mail messages.
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   If you have no access to the php.ini file and the system administrator
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   is not willing to update it for you, you will have to install the
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   SMTP module for Phorum. You can download this module from the module page:
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   http://phorum.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/wiki/ListOfModules
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   In the settings for this module, you can specify the SMTP server to use
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   for sending mail. When using this module, you will completely bypass PHP's
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   builtin mail system.
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  4.2.3 Date formatting
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  ---------------------
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   Windows does not support the date formatting function strftime() fully.
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   If your dates are not showing correctly, you have to edit your language
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   file ({phorum dir}/include/lang/<yourlanguage>.php) and change the
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   definitions for $PHORUM['long_date'] and $PHORUM['short_date'] in there
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   to something that will work for your system. We suggest using the
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   following definitions:
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      $PHORUM['long_date']="%B %d, %Y %I:%M%p";
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      $PHORUM['short_date']="%m/%d/%Y %I:%M%p";
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   Go to http://www.php.net/strftime for information on all available
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   formatting options as well as the formats that Windows does not support.
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5. Support
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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   If you have questions about installing Phorum, please visit the website
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   http://phorum.org/ and ask the development team for help in the
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   Support forum. Also read the file docs/faq.txt for answers to the most
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   common questions.
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