Alan,
You are only scratching the very thinnest surface of all this stuff.
Wait until your board messes up because of a MySQL error. And you find out it's because he latest version of MySQL isn't completely compatible with your message board. Then you find out the PHP needs a patch as well, and both of them require your server to be rebooted to take effect. Then you need a kernel upgrade because those two patches opened up a security hole in the server.
When you finally get that all straightened away, you discover you want to do something really neat, but the particular message board you chose doesn't support it yet the other one you looked at when you were trying to decide on a message board system will do it easily. There is a conversion program in the works to the other system, but it's still in beta testing, and not expected to be completed for 6 months or more. No lie - that's what I went through not that long ago converting from iKonboard to vBulletin.
Finally you get everything straightened away, and your message board begins to take off, your bandwidth goes through the roof. Because you made ALL kinds of mistakes setting up your board. How much bandwidth does each page display use? If you get 1000 users per day and they look at nearly every page on your site, what sort of bandwidth will you need for your domain hosting? Graphics make it look snazzy and everything, but they eat up bandwidth like it's a free lunch.
When I started up the very first BOI on HerpWantAds.com, I had to upgrade my domain hosting (more $$) about every month until I basically HAD to lease my own dedicated server. I have had to change servers MANY times because of just as MANY reasons to do so. If you get a cheap server, expect to have your server down a lot. Nothing is more frustrating to be building up traffic to your site to crank up your computer every other day and find that your server is just gone. Do that too many times, and people will just stop trying to come to your site.
If you want to have your gray matter fall out of your ears, pick up some books on web server administration. You will never look at the internet again without being amazed that it works at all.
Good luck....
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