Interactive sites are quite popular among the visitors these days. Visitors like to interact with the site's owner as well as amongst each other with the use of email. The most ideal thing for this is the forums.

Choosing a Forum
The first step is to chose the forum software that you wish to use. This decision will depend on factors such as the server you make use of and whether you are willing to pay or not.

Some of the options are:

* vBulletin: It is the most popular commercial forum, costing about $85 per year. In runs on PHP and MySQL, and offers free download of a number of add-on functions. A large number of forums on the web run on vBulletin.

* Ikonboard: It is a free forum written in Perl. It is not a good idea to start a new forum on Ikonboard, as most of the forums are on a withdrawal spree from Ikonboard.

* Invision: This is another commercial forum which offers add-ons. It runs on PHP and MySQL but is slightly more expensive than vBulletin.

* phpBB: It is a free and open source PHP forum that supports almost all database systems. It comprises of a large community and has an easy template system. It is currently the most popular open source forum.

* YaBB: It is another free and open source forum written in Perl. It does not need a database to run. It is capable of creating its own files for the storage of threads and comments.

Installation of Your Forum
The installation process of every forum is different. Generally, the process goes like this:

* Open the config file such as config.php and add your database details, that is, your name, username and password.

* Upload the file of the forum to your server.

* Go to the install.php file through your web browser.

*  Follow the instructions in order to create the tables automatically in your database as well as an administrator password for the forum.

* Delete the install script.

This process installs the forum. You can change the forum settings as well as install any new templates with the use of your administrator password.

Potential Problems
Some of the common problems faced while installation of a forum are:

* Unable to find install script: If you are unable to locate the install script, recheck the exact location where you uploaded the forum's files. The forum's name has to be included in the URL, and the file may be present in an installed sub-folder.

* Install script fails: Recheck your database's details that you entered in the config file. The forum will not be able to connect to your database in case the details are not entered correctly.

* Forum installs but then doesn't work: Check whether you have uploaded all the forum's files correctly and kept the structure of the sub folder intact.