Basic Settings

Just a few things for you to setup ;).

This is the name of your forum, ie. "The Testing Forum".

This is the URL to your forum without the trailing '/'!.
In most cases, you can leave the default value in this box alone - it is usually right.
Gzip Output:
This function does not work properly on all servers, but can save you a lot of bandwidth.
Click here to test it. (it should just say "PASS".)
Database Sessions:
This feature is almost always for the best, as it makes sessions more dependable.
UTF-8 Character Set:
This feature lets both the database and the forum use an international character set, UTF-8. This can be useful when working with multiple languages that use different character sets.
Allow Stat Collection:
If enabled, this will allow Simple Machines to visit your site once a month to collect basic statistics. This will help us make decisions as to which configurations to optimize the software for. For more information please visit our info page.

MySQL Server Settings

These are the settings to use for your MySQL server. If you don't know the values, you should ask your host what they are.


This is nearly always localhost - so if you don't know, try localhost.

Fill in the username you need to connect to your MySQL database here.
If you don't know what it is, try the username of your ftp account, most of the time they are the same.

Here, put the password you need to connect to your MySQL database.
If you don't know this, you should try the password to your ftp account.

Fill in the name of the database you want to use for SMF to store its data in.
If this database does not exist, this installer will try to create it.

The prefix for every table in the database. Do not install two forums with the same prefix!
This value allows for multiple installations in one database.