I have four separate forums and wonder how I can make it so that after logging into one of the forums a member can click on the page of another forum and not have to relog into the second forum.

All forums will have the same user names/passwords etc.

And I also want to have say three forums using the same database and I know I have to make the new tbl prefix for each table in the database but is it possible to hardcode the second and third forum (which files?) so as to lookup member details from the same table. ie all three forums have their own table prefix and tables for things such as the topics, posts etc but all three use the same Author table?

You will need to go through each file in the forum and find each query that references the Author table and change it so that it looks at the same Author table.

If you are using Access as it is a flat file database system so it would be better not to use the same database otherwise your forums will start getting very slow as they fill up with posts.

ok thanks Borg, I am wary of getting into database difficulties so I will take your advice and keep teh databses separate.

That means I need to enable users to move between the different forums without having to relog. Any ideas on that one?

I have read many posts on the topic but cant seem to get my head around the  answer yet.

An idea.

A forum jump button to travel between the 4 forums.

What script do I need to pass the login details from one page to another forum?

That would have to be a short bit of code wouldnt it? Where do I get the variables?