A Few SMF Tips

After installing your forum make sure it's secure by doing the following:

1. Delete install.php immediately if this has not been done already! Check your root forum folder to make sure.

2. Go To Admin -> Features and Options and make sure the follow ARE checked:

• Do not reveal contact details of members to guests
• Enable error logging
• Require reactivation after email change
• Log moderation actions
• Enable reporting of personal messages
• Maximum number of recipients allowed in a personal message. Leave at the default.
• Number of personal messages a user may send in an hour. Leave at the default.

3. Go To Admin -> Features and Options and make sure the follow ARE NOT checked:

• Allow non-administrators to hide their online status

4. Go to Admin -> Server Settings and make sure Languages is not set to utf-8. This will cause problems when installing some mods.

5. Go To Admin -> Attachments and Avatars -> Attachment Settings and make sure you check the box as below:


DO NOT USE ".EXE" EXTENSION!!! This is a known security risk!!!


1.  Having this checked will create backups of any files modified or replaced by installing mods. You can then use these files to restore corrupted mods or those that just didn't install correctly. Just delete the updated files and then rename the appropriate file with the "~" (just delete the "~"). This will save you from reinstalling any mods that modified the file before installing the corrupted mod.

2.  Let's look at each one of these options in turn:

• "Only the standard files are writable." - This is the default setting and is usually fine for most forums. This setting will ALWAYS be ticked when you come back to this screen no matter what your previous setting was. If you've ticked any of the other options you will always see this ticked when you come back to this screen. This is a SMF bug. Please, remember that.
• "All files are writable." - This is the setting you want to use BEFORE installting any mods.This setting should make all file writable so mods should not have problems installing. However, this does not seem to work well on some servers.
• "The minimun files are writable." - Will leave only the absolute necessary files writable.
  

Tips:

1. It is better to remove all guest permissions but allow guests to access the forums. This way the spiders get to index your site for search engines.

2. Create a test account so you can see what your members in each member group can see or do.

3. Create a separate test forum to play with, modify files, and install mods. It should have the same features and mods as your live forum but you won't need any users. Installing mods on a test site and solving any problems first will save you and your users on your live site a lot of headaches.

4. Install mods to make your job a lot easier.

5. Before installing any mod it is advised to go to Admin -> Packages -> Options -> Cleanup Permissions and select "Make all files writable."

6. Use the Forum Maintenance - General Maintenance options to try to repair any errors and and improve system performance.

7. Use the Forum Maintenance - Backup Database options to to make regular database backups.

This will be updated as more tips come in....

Courtesy of: