can someone just explain to me how to install smf 2.0 rc5? ive downloaded the zip file and extracted it but how what do i do?
Installing SMF (http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?board=2.0;sort=subject)
Welcome to SMF. Take a look at the link that Andrew94© posted. Basically if you unzipped the the file to say, your desktop, now all you need to do is FTP it to your host, maintaining the folder/file structure. Once that is done, call the install script by adding /install.php to the end of your site URL. Of course all these comments assume that you already have a host and a domain.
Adding on to what JimM said, you'll need to setup a database, and a database user for that database so SMF can connect to it.
If you have cPanel with your host, it'll be very simple.