Administering a forum can be a pretty difficult task. When you really get to it, youcome to realize that there are many details and peculiarities you need to payattention to. Therefore it is really important what kind of CMS platform youchoose for your forum.

Some of the most popular open source CMS platforms are SMF (SimpleMachines Forum) and phpBB (php Bulletin Board). Both platforms are professional gradesoftware packages, offering a number of tools to customize your forum to fit your preferencesand needs. Let’s take a closer look at them.

If you are a newcomer in administering forums, SMF will be a good choice for you. It is a veryadvanced, but at the same time easy to use platform. It has a straightforward installation and afast and set up process. Another unique feature in SMF is SSI (Server Side Includes). It allowscreating a connection between your forum and your website.

PhpBB, on the other hand, sometimes may require more programming skills. However, its longhistory on the market and great numbers of its community members can confirm the numerousbenefits of this service. Some of them include:

Extensive administration panel and the possibility to customize your bulletin board withease.

The opportunity to make changes in the code with no need to get the permission fromphpBB Group.

An effective security system, with the possibility to add special anti spam MODs andsome additional security measures, like disabling HTML for regular forum users.

If you are currently running your forum on SMF, you may want to try phpBB and see which one works best for you. Besides, instead of creating a new phpBB forumfrom scratch you can easily import your existing forum to a new platform with CMS2CMS, migration service. CMS2CMS allows you to have your entire forum imported

fully automatically in only a few quick steps.

Here is a step by step instruction for you

Register an AccountTo get started you need to create an account at www.cms2cms.com or login with your

Facebook or Google account.

Indicate the URLs of Your WebsitesType the URLs of your Source and Target websites and choose their CMS types, in our case it will be SMF and phpBB respectively.

Download the Connection BridgeThe connection bridge is needed to allow the interaction between your Source and Target platforms. To proceed with installation you need to follow these steps:

Download the bridge file (‘cms2cms’ zip) to your computer and extract the folder from the zip file.

Connect your Source and Target websites via FTP (for that you have to know your host name, username, and password).

Copy ‘cms2cms’ folder to the root directories of your SMF and phpBB websites.

Select your Migration OptionsAfter verifying the connection to your websites, you will be able to choose the extra Migration options such as:

migrate media; make URLs SEO friendly; clear current Target data get design suggestion.

Start your free Demo MigrationBefore proceeding to the Full Migration you can try free Demo Migration and see how the service works. After the Demo Migration is finished, you will be able to check the result on your website.

Start your Full MigrationIf you are satisfied with the results of your Demo Migration you may proceed to the Full Migration from your SMF to phpBB platform. The Migration process will take up only a few minutes and after it’s over you will be able to enjoy your brand new forum!

Note, if you want to make your migration process even easier, you can choose the option of assisted migration service. You can read more about it here http://www.cms2cms.com/assisted­migration­service/

So are you excited to try your phpBB forum? Start Demo Migration right now and you’ll see how easy it is to move your forum from SMF to phpBB!