The file is located in a folder named includes which is located in the directory where you have uploaded the files from the upload folder, that you have previously extracted.
The directories in cPanel File Manager are browsed by clicking their icons. Reach the folder includes and click with the right mouse key on the file named 'config.php.new' to show the actions that can be done with this file.
Rename the file to 'config.php'.
Click on the Edit File link to open the file for editing and the text editor will be popped up.
Editing of the 'config.php' file is the most important part of vBulletin's installation.
First, you have to enter the name of the MySQL database that you have created:
The line should be looking as follows:
$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'forum';
Then, you have to enter the database username that you have created:
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root';
The last value that is important to be edited is the password:
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = '';
Please, be careful not to delete the leading and the trailing < ' > signs as they are very important too.
Save the file named 'config.php' by clicking on the [Save] button at the end of the editor's form.
Please, note that it is not recommended to edit this file with a Windows text editor, such like Notepad or Wordpad as this editors are saving the files with .php extensions with the "^M" sign in the end of every row and sometimes this is causing problems when they are transferred on a Linux server.
vBulletin installation trough a web browser
As most of the PHP-based applications, vBulletin forum installation is done in a "Step by step" mode. To launch it, please open your favorite web browser and point it to: http://yourdomainname.com/install/install.php. Replace yourdomainname.com with your actual domain name.
If everything is correctly set in the 'config.php' file, a window will appear. There you'll have to enter your unique Customer Number. This is the number which you use to log into your vBulletin.com Members' Area.
Copy and Paste your number in the box and click on the [Enter install system] button.
If you have entered the correct 13-digit Customer Number you will be redirected to the first of total thirteen installation steps.
Step 1: Click the [Next Step] button and you'll proceed to the part which is called Verify Configuration.
If everything is correct, you'll see the following text: 'Config file exists and is readable' and you will be able to proceed to step two, called Database Connectivity Verification.
Step 2: Click the [Next Step] button. You will be prompted with the following messages if everything is configured correctly in the 'config.php' file: 'Connection succeeded! The database already exists'.
Step 3: To proceed to step three, which actually creates the database records, click the [Next] button.
Step 4: In case all the tables were created you would be able to proceed to step four, which will set the default database encoding and variables.
Step 5: Once this is done, click [Next], for step five, which will auto insert sample data in the tables that were already created.
Step 6: Click [Next], for the sixth step, which will input the Master Language - it's English by default.
Step 7: Clicking next will lead you to step 7 where the auto installer will import the default vBulletin theme style.
Step 8 is importing the Administrator's Help files which can be found later in the Admin Control panel.
In Step 9 you have to configure the details of your forum. You have to select the title of the vBulletin board, the title of the page, the BB URL and Home URL are settings that are automatically obtained by the web browser and they do not need to be changed. It's a good idea to change the administrator's email, as this will be used for administrative email address associated with this forum. The cookie path, where the session information will be temporarily stored is considered to / by default. It's not recommended to enter your own setting as this may result in you to be unable to login to your forum. It is advisable to leave this Cookie domain setting blank as entering an invalid setting can leave you unable to login to your forum, too.
Step 10: Click the proceed button and you'll be redirected to Step 10, where the importing of the details is confirmed.
Step 11: Click the Next step button to proceed with the setup of the administrator account. Fill in the form with the desired administrative username, password and email and click Proceed.
Step 12: You will be forwarded to a confirmation page and you will have to click the Next step button in order to finish the installation.
Step 13: Once you have finished with the installation, please open your cPanel's File Manager and browse to the directory where you have uploaded the vBulletin's files. Enter the install directory and remove the 'install.php' file. This is considered to be mandatory.
Leaving off the 'install.php' file will make your vBulletin forum extremely vulnerable!
When you delete this file, you can preview the installation on this URL: http://yourdomain.com, http://yourdomain.com/forum or http://forum.yourdomain.com/.
You can find the administrator's control panel on this URL: http://yourdomain.com/admincp/index.php.
You will use this control panel to administrate your forum.
