Is to learn the only way?

[whogivesa]

I am trying to create a database(I think). What I want to do is a little like this forum. It would be used for tech support for sattelite customers. I would like to have a forum where you would be required to log-in in order to post and I have no idea of how to do this. I have had little two-bit web sites before but I want this one to be as professional as possible. So I guess my question would be; Is there anything like what I explained that I can down load, insert, and edit, or is the only way to learn the proper scriping language? And if it does come down to that then does anyone know a user friendly site I can learn from? I believe that ASP would be the language to learn but I honestly cant say I know that for a fact, so if I am wrong please correct me. I would really like to hear feedback, good or bad.

Thanks
Aaron

P.S. I am very sorry if this was the wrong forum to post on but it seemed the most likely to fit my circumstance.

[sleipner]

check http://sourceforge.net, open source listing of, well, open source projects - just search asp or php forum

there's actually another post on this (here on DD) that mentions Snitz forums and I think phpBB

BTW personally I know neither but PHP seems like the more widely supported and forum-helped of the two

[Twey]

BTW personally I know neither but PHP seems like the more widely supported and forum-helped of the two

Yes, you'll find much more support for PHP than for ASP, as ASP is a proprietary language only supported on Microsoft's IIS webserver, which is in turn only supported on Windows. For this reason -- as well as its comparative lack of power and flexibility (possibly solved in ASP.NET?) -- most people use PHP, which is open-source and so runs across just about every platform and webserver.