Completely New to SMF and Need Help

[wishfulanthony]

Hello! I am Anthony, a new person here to SMF, and I would really like to gain advice on how to set up my own forum using SMF 2.0. I currently have my own website, www(dot)anthonynachor(dot)com, which is hosted by Automattic, a subsidiary of Wordpress and the web host is by Weebly. I would like to set up a supplementary forum site that I want to host as well using your software because I've seen other forum sites using SMF as well, but, I want to create a forum that is based on certain aesthetics, including my desire to discuss transportation issues, from automobiles to public transit, as well as discussing urban development ideas and issues.

However, as I read through the SMF 2.0 Installation process, it requires me to have a webserver that properly supports PHP: I saw there the link to Apache (www[dot]apache[dot]org), and I ended up going through the download page, and it eventually linked me to this site:

http[colon][slash][slash]apache[dot]tradebit[dot]com[slash]pub[slash][slash]

Now, I got a little confused because I don't know which sub-folder/s I need to install on my Windows laptop so that I can install SMF 2.0 properly. (In this particular case, I am about to download the latest SMF Software, 2.2.19) I would really like to get help on properly setting up SMF 2.0 so that I can start making my own forum while I have downtime before college starts again in August. Also, I want to determine how to ensure that I have the minimum requirements stated on the Readme file provided as I downloaded the SMF 2.0 install folder so that I can properly run my upcoming forum.

I know that I will have more questions on the way, but hopefully, this will kick start my process of familiarizing myself with the forum software.

[ARG01]

My first question to you is where are you getting the SMF  2.2.19 software?