PhpBB3 provides you well-categorized options to administer your forum. You
can manage user attachments, prune inactive users, set
permission roles for admins, users and moderators or even assign multi-level
permissions. You can also set rules for username and password, merge topics or
posts in case the same user has posted multiple times and have customized
profiles for users. A user can also mail or print the topics/discussion
directly. Another new feature is the ability to modify the style template,
themes and the image can be set directly from the browser, whereas previously
one had to download the source code, modify it before he could upload it. Jabber
support is also provided, which means you can have Instant Messaging enabled
within your forum. Also, if you want DB or LDAP authentication, the new version
comes with built-in support.

To install phpBB3 on your web server, download the installation file and dump it into the web root folder. Open it through a web browser, check for compatibility and click on Proceed.	Specify the type of database used, host and database name, and user credentials with admin rights over the database. And click on Proceed.

Under the Administrator configuration section, specify the username, password and email address of the administrator and proceed.	Download the phBB3 configuration file and manually update all the key details in this file, in case the application does not have the right to modify it.

Specify the SMTP server details, in case you want to enable email functionality. You can also specify the domain name, server port and other details.	The installation part is over. You now need to upgrade your previous version to phbBB3. For this, click on ‘Proceed to convertor’ link.

The software shows you all the existing phpBB installations on the server. Choose the installed version that you want to upgrade and click on ‘Convert.’	In the Settings section, provide details from the older phpBB installation, such as database name, password, installation path, prefix of the table, etc.

After the upgradation process is over, the search index needs to be converted. For this, go to Administration Control panel and select Maintenance.	This is how your forums page should look like after you’ve gone through the previous steps. Shown above is the PCQuest Forums home page in phbBB3.