New and need some advice.

[alohaff]

Hello I'm new to SMF, and wanted to set something up for our business. I have no idea how to approach this though. I'm a systems admin, not much of a web developer.

We use Wordpress for our main site, but I'm by no means a WP or PHP expert. I know how to maintain it but not fix major problems. This is hosted on a Windows 2008 server. I'd like to have SMF setup at hxxp:forum.xxx.com [nonactive] while our main site is hxxp:xxx.com [nonactive]. I know how to make this change in DNS.

I'm left with three options for setting up SMF, so was wondering what would be the best route to go and how difficult it would be:

1. Setup SMF on the same Windows Server as the WP site. Not a fan of this, since I don't want to mess up our main site.
2. Setup SMF On a separate Windows Server. There are no concerns about adding a server, it's a virtual environment.
3. Setup SMF on a hosting site. Someone had mentioned they use ICDSoft?

Thanks in advance for any assistance, please don't bite my head off for not being that knowledgeable.

[Kindred]

when you say "it is hosted on a windows 2008 server, do you mean that your windows server is running IIS or is it running Apache?

yes. I use ICDSoft. I love them...  great, responsive host.

You are setting up a subdomain...    that can be done in a dozen different ways - most of which depend on which webserver you are actually running, IIS or Apache... and then which (of any) control software you are running on that (e.g. Cpanel)

[alohaff]

Ah sorry, we are running IIS 6 on a Windows 2003 server for the existing site. The separate server would be Windows 2008 running IIS 7.

[Kindred]

ah, well... I can't tell you how to set up a subdomain on IIS...   but I don't see any reason why you would need to have the subdomain on a completely separate server...