I'm looking for a web host

[Skiz]

I need to start a forum, but I'm really not sure what I'm looking for, so I need some suggestions.

The forum in question will be a small one. It will probably only have around twenty active members and it's sole purpose is communication for a group of people.

I have seen plenty of free forums advertised, but they do not give FTP access.

I'm looking for a free or inexpensive host, where the site is all mine, with full FTP access.

How much webspace would be considered ample?
What is an appropriate monthly cost? (if any)

On a side note, I am quite familiar with phpbb boards, but obviously vB is a nicer look. Is vB easy to mod, etc.?

[Barbarossa]

Why not just set up a yahoo group or something?

[Skiz]

Why not just set up a yahoo group or something?

You'll have to expand on that.

[Barbarossa]

http://groups.yahoo.com/

Everyone obviously has to have a Yahoo! ID.

Start your own group. Select a category and give it a name.

Then you can customize it to say that it's private, unlisted, etc, and only people with your approval can join.

[Skiz]

http://groups.yahoo.com/

Everyone obviously has to have a Yahoo! ID.

Start your own group. Select a category and give it a name.

Then you can customize it to say that it's private, unlisted, etc, and only people with your approval can join.

Not what I'm looking for.

[Artakserksis]

You can make a forum at invisionfree.com or if you want something more I suggest you lifelesspeople.com wich is a very good paid-by-post hosting.

[lovemuscle]

this is a good site to try and cheep to http://www.powweb.com/powweb/index.bml

[UltraMagnus]

i would just buy some webspace from a normal host, make sure they offer PhP and atleast one mySQL database, and then install a free forum program or full content managment system that has a forum module

[Skiz]

i would just buy some webspace from a normal host, make sure they offer PhP and atleast one mySQL database, and then install a free forum program or full content managment system that has a forum module

That's the plan, but again:

How much webspace would be considered ample?
What is an appropriate monthly cost? (if any)

Any suggestions?

[UltraMagnus]

well, forums dont need much, i would say >50mb would be fine for a small forum as long as you are not allowing people to upload large files.

i use http://www.quidhost.com/ however there are many others out there