Setting account permissions (Admin account) and other setup

[Dave987]

I don't understand very well the structure or inner workings of SMF.  I recently installed the forum on my new website (archnet.us/forum) using a built in function in my cPanel.  I was prompted to enter my e-mail to receive setup info, but it never came through.  I have a working forum, but no setup.  To begin with, I want to set up an admin account.  I keep reading about some administrative management console--where is this?

Thanks!

P.S. please try to keep it a little simple here... half the help docs on this site might as well be in Arabic for all the good they do me. Thanks!

[Livaco]

You HAVE to install it manualy as in install.php is were you set up a admin account. Otherwise your forum will not work.

[Kindred]

Livaco,  that is not true....

Dave987.

Although what Livaco said is not true, setting up the forum using your host's installer is a sure way to get things misconfigured, since we have no idea what the host is doing with the setup.   When you set up the forum, you should have bene prompted for a forum name, url, path, database and admin username and password.
If the forum is actually running at that address, you should be able to log into your admin account using the information that you provided during setup.

as to why you did not receive an email...  there is a good chance that the auto-setup fomr the host does not properly configure the mail settings.

[Dave987]

Interesting.  Alright, thank you!  I don't know if I have the know-how to set it up from scratch.   I'll try setting it up again using my host's system, to see if it works correctly this time.

[Kindred]

Installing "from scratch" is actually not that difficult...

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Installing

[Dave987]

That could prove useful...thanks!
I did run the setup again, and this time, it gave me a setup page.  Among other things, I can set an Admin username and password, but the username can only be one which already exists.
When I use the admin login link they provide, and enter the admin login password, I am told "You are not allowed to access this section"

Any idea what the problem might be, or do I need to do it all manually?

[Kindred]

A username that alreayd exists?

That does not make any sense, since the installation is CREATING the new user...

I think that you are getting confused between the admin user that gets created and the database or FTP user...

[Dave987]

A username that alreayd exists?

That does not make any sense, since the installation is CREATING the new user...

I think that you are getting confused between the admin user that gets created and the database or FTP user...

No, this is not FTP anything.  It is on the same page as other SMF options.  When I enter a new user and password, I am told something like "Error: This user does not exist."  Only when I enter a preexisting username does it *seem* to work.  There is no FTP login similar to the account info it accepts.
Here is that section:


If I enter a non-existent account, here is the message I get:

[Kindred]

yeah,  don't use softaculous...  they are trying top do some preconfiguration and we have no idea what they mean or why they do that...

Use the standard installation archive file from our download site and the install instructions that I linked you to above...

[Dave987]

Blah.... Alright, thanks.  I'll give it a go when I get the time, and see if that works.

[Dave987]

Ok, I'm working on setting up SMF using the official package.  I have a database set up, and now I need to enter the URL for the forum.  This should be simple, but I'm planning to have users access it as a subdomain.  In reality, however, it resides in a web-accessible subdirectory.

Should I enter forum.archnet.us [nofollow] or archnet.us/path/fourm [nofollow]?

Thanks!

[Kindred]

enter whichever one you want the SYSTEM to use when users access it...
if users are going to be hitting it from the subdomain, then set up the subdomain first and THEN use the subdomain for your configuration.

however, I will note that using a subdomain for a subdirectory is bad process and reeks of a poorly configured host, IMO...
In general, subdomains should be subdirectories of the webroot, (e.g. at the same level as the www directory) not sub to the www directory itself -- or, in your case, even deeper

regardless, however, that does not change the original statement.
(do note, though, that you PATH should be the actual path)

[Dave987]

Alright, thanks again!  I'm a little confused--is it best have the subdomain directory in the root (/) or in the main HTML directory (public_html)?  In either case I don't think I can move it.  This host is being a bit of a pain...

I have it up and running now.  I just have one more question:  When it finished installing, it suggested that I "chmod" a specific file.  I was unable to catch the name before my browser crashed for a different reason.  Which file was I supposed to do this to, and for that matter....how do I?

[Kindred]

chmod refers to the file permissions.
644 is the standard, recommended file permission and 755 is the recommended directory permission (if you are on a linux server - windows is different).
However, depending on your server and how you host has you set up, you may nee MORE permissions e.g. 664/775

[Dave987]

Ok, the permissions are set to to the standard, 644/755.

Nothing seems to have broken, so I guess this works 

A little off-topic:  SMF has always seemed to load slowly, especially on sites other than mine.  I suspect that the more content there is, the longer it takes.  This forum, for example, takes 15-30 seconds for login, and 5-15 seconds per page load.  Is there anything which I can do to keep it running fairly quickly from my site?  Right now login takes 10-20 seconds, and page load takes 1-5 seconds.

[Dave987]

One more question:  Should I be able to log in to the admin account from the regular login, or can this only be done from the admin link?

[Kindred]

1- you should be able to log in as admin just as you would a regular user...   there is no separate admin URL for SMF...  it is just a permissioned action (using SMF permissions)

2- I don't know what would be causing such a delay...   seriously, this site is HUGE! in terms of data... and it loads just fine - without delays. I have several sites which have been running for years and are quite large (database in the 2-3+ gigabyte range) and they run just fine...   Those delays are NOT a function of SMF...
they could be a server issue
they could be a code conflict (poorly formed php, bad javascript, javascript conlfict?)
they could be advert related
they could be BROWSER related (your browser... do the site(s) load slowly for everyone or just for you?

What URL is loading slowly for you?

[Dave987]

Odd... for a while I was only able to log in using /forum/index.php?action=admin
Just now I tried one more time the regular way, and it worked.

As for the delay,  the login on any SMF seems slow, including mine. 
The login of this site is somewhat slow, pge load isn't too bad.
http://www.rejetto.com/forum/index.php?c=6 [nofollow], and  logs me in VERY slowly, and loads pages slowly, as well.
The forum I'm working on here: http://forum.archnet.us [nofollow] also loads somewhat slowly.

I mainly use Firefox, but have also tried Opera and IE.  I have done so on two different networks, connected to two different New-England (U.S.) ISPs.

I haven't asked around on the Rejetto forum, and I'm the only one who connects to my own so far.  I could ask a couple other ARCHNET managers to try mine out I suppose.

I don't know if this helps to clarify.

[Kindred]

I think it is a local issue to you...  none of those sites have ANY delays when I access them....