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This article is one I originally wrote for another website. It's about the Fantastico setup at Bluehost. I try to write my articles based on what I would think would be helpful to me if I were reading the article. You may never even consider using Bluehost, but then again this may help you decide that they are right up your alley. Myself I prefer as easy a setup as possible, and the Fantastico really helps setup scripts in a hurry.

Fantastico Script Installer
Here's another great feature from Bluehost. Using Bluehost was the first time I ran into Fantastico. Once you log into your account control panel, you can find the Fantastico icon toward the bottom, usually about the fourth row from the last. What's so awesome about Fantastico is that it allows you to install a large number of scripts by basically clicking on the script you want and then hitting install. You usually have to pick a name for the folder you want it to install in, and you have to come up with a user name and password. The hardest thing you'll have to do is choose the script, from the list of popular scripts, that you want to run on your website. After you've installed your favorite script, you should check back occasionally, as it will let you know when there are updates available and will ask you to click on the upgrade link Always back up your files! The last time I updated drupal, it asked if I wanted to backup the old setup, which I did. It was a good thing too because there apparently was a bug in the latest update. I was able to go back to the original installation, thankfully. I even backup the database sql files that the scripts usually run on just to be safe.

The Fantastico section currently has lots of great scripts, many of which I haven't even had to chance to implement into my websites. The few I really have loved is the previously mentioned Drupal. This script allows you to run blogs, incorporate news feeds, allow comment posting, and even comes with an RSS feed so you can submit your blog section to all the rss feed submission sites out there. I've even started incorporating it into my static pages using Carp, which is great for putting news feeds into your website.

Here is a list of the cool scripts you will find. For just blogs there's b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine Free, and WordPress. For content management you have Drupal (which you can use for blogging as well), Geeklog, Mambo Open Source, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Post-Nuke, Siteframe, Typo3, and Xoops. 

There are some customer relationship scripts including: Crafty Syntax Live Help, Help Center Live, osTicket, PHP Support Tickets, Support Logic Helpdesk, and Support Services Manager. 
Here are a couple of discussion Boards - phpBB2 and SMF. 
E-Commerce scripts include CubeCart, OS Commerce,  and Zen Cart. 

And the rest of the scripts go like this -

F.A.Q. -FAQMasterFlex 
Guestbooks - ViPER Guestbook 
Hosting Billing - AccountLab Plus and  phpCOIN 
Image Galleries- 4Images Gallery, Coppermine Photo Gallery, and Gallery 
Mailing Lists - PHPlist 
Polls and Surveys - Advanced Poll, phpESP and PHPSurveyor 
Project Management - dotProject and PHProjekt 
Site Builders - Soholaunch Pro Edition and Templates Express 
Wiki - TikiWiki and PhpWiki 

Other Scripts - Dew-NewPHPLinks, Moodle, Noahs Classifieds, Open-Realty, phpAdsNew, PHPauction, phpFormGenerator, and WebCalendar 

Keep in mind that most of these are free, but some of these scripts have to be licensed particularly for commercial sites. My personal favorites are free though. 

Here are some of the free programs I have used so far. 

Drupal
One word of warning, do not allow posting of comments by unregistered users. You will eventually be spammed big time by gambling sites. It seems that simply requiring them to register, helps to keep them at bay. Seeing 1,000 gambling links in your comments is not unusual if you allow unregistered guests to post comments.

Phpbb Message Board
This one is also totally free and installation, of course, is a breeze with Fantastico. This is the most popular message board on the net. It's even got a bad word filter which you need from time to time with a public forum.

Please keep in mind, the Bluehost tech support department doesn't support any of these scripts. They are just made available for the benefit of their customers as a convenience. Like I said before, Fantastico makes installation a breeze. So playing with these scripts once their installed is all that's left and it can be a lot of fun.

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