Ok Justin, my forum has been running flawlessly up to now. I have my own server and am transferring my websites and forum to a new hosting service. The settings.pl file exits as this:
####### Directories Sets #######
$root = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum";
$code = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Code";
$boards = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Boards";
$prefs = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Prefs";
$members = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Members";
$messages = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Messages";
$modsdir = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Mods";
$images = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs/images/";
$simages = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs/Smilies/";
$avsurl = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs/Avatars";
$avdir = "/var/www/html/blahdocs/Avatars";
$realurl = "http://www.21frets.com/cgi-bin/forum/";
$bdocsdir = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs";
$helpdesk = "";
$languages = "/var/www/cgi-bin/forum/Languages";
$templates = "/var/www/html/blahdocs/template";
$templatesu = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs/template";
$buttons = "http://www.21frets.com/blahdocs/buttons/";
$bdocsdir2 = "/var/www/html/blahdocs";

However, my hosing service locates my blahdocs dir under /public_html/ and also the cgi-bin dir is located under this dir. In other words /public_html/cgi-bin and /public_html/blahdocs

After uploading my backed up forum from my PC to the new server, I obviously need to make changes in settings.pl but have been unsuccessful so far.
Looking at my sample above and knowing my new dir structure, can you please tell me what I need to change the paths to? Currently I get the 500 server error.

Thanks for your time, Eblah really has serverd me well to this point!

Hey Larry, your settings should be as below.

$root = ".";
$code = "./Code";
$boards = "./Boards";
$prefs = "./Prefs";
$members = "./Members";
$messages = "./Messages";
$modsdir = "./Mods";
$images = "/blahdocs/images/";
$simages = "/blahdocs/Smilies/";
$avsurl = "/blahdocs/Avatars";
$avdir = "DOCUMENTROOT/blahdocs/Avatars";
$realurl = "http://www.21frets.com/cgi-bin/forum/";
$bdocsdir = "/blahdocs";
$helpdesk = "";
$languages = ".Languages";
$templates = "DOCUMENTROOT/blahdocs/template";
$templatesu = "/blahdocs/template";
$buttons = "/blahdocs/buttons/";
$bdocsdir2 = "DOCUMENTROOT/blahdocs";

The structure should look more like this, you need to replace DOCUMENTROOT with your actual path and should look something like this: /home/sites/opportunitynowhere.co.uk/public_html/

Download the attached file, unzip and upload in ASCII to your cgi-bin folder, chmod to 755.
Now run it eg: http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/perlinfo.pl
This will tell you your DOCUMENTROOT.

Hey Martin,
Thanks so much for this quick answer to my question! Makes lots os sense, I will setup my file, get the docs root in there and let you know how I make out.
Thanks again!!!

I now get the skeleton forum with 'Theme not Found' at the top and of course no theme.
Any ideas??

Ok,
Here is my file, I found the document root as you suggested with your pl file. Still I have no forum.
I can not log in, I see the layout without the template, but I do see the Icons.
Also, my board was in locked mode for maintenance when I copied it down, does that even make a difference?

####################################################
# E-Blah Bulliten Board Systems               2007 #
####################################################
# This file contains setup information vital to    #
# running E-Blah. Read Blah.pl for full headers.   #
# You should not edit this file manualy. Use Admin #
# Center on your Forum to change these settings.   #
####################################################

$bversion = 16;      # Version

####### Directories Sets #######
$root = ".";
$code = "./Code";
$boards = "./Boards";
$prefs = "./Prefs";
$members = "./Members";
$messages = "./Messages";
$modsdir = "./Mods";
$images = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs/images/";
$simages = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs/Smilies/";
$avsurl = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs/Avatars";
$avdir = "/usr/local/apache/htdocs/blahdocs/Avatars";
$realurl = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/cgi-bin/forum/";
$bdocsdir = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs";
$helpdesk = "";
$languages = "./Languages";
$templates = "/usr/local/apache/htdocs/blahdocs/template";
$templatesu = "/blahdocs/template";
$buttons = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs/buttons/";
$bdocsdir2 = "/usr/local/apache/htdocs/blahdocs";

#######  Settings  #######
$regto = qq~Admin~;
$eadmin = q~lcash@suscom-maine.net~;
$cookpre = qq~eblah~;
$mailuse = 2;
$smaill = "/usr/sbin/sendmail";
$mailhost = "smtp.suscom-maine.net";
$emailsig = q*We take your privacy seriously and do not share your email address with anyone else.  21frets.com/JV Forum Copyright © 2004.*;
$mailauth = 0;
$mailusername = '';
$mailpassword = '';
$maintance = 1;
$maintancer = qq~This board is being upgraded.~;
$lockout = 0;
$noguest = 1;
$creg = 1;
$serload = 0;
$gzipen = 0;
$uallow = 2;
$avupload = 1;
$ntsys = 0;
$uploaddir = "/blahdocs/uploads";
$uploadurl = "http://host491.ipowerweb.com/~i21frets/blahdocs/uploads";
$allowedext = "BMP,GIF,JPG";
$maxsize = ".500";
$maxsize2 = ".125";
$autoresize = 0;
$tnwidth = "0";
$tnheight = "0";
$upbc = 1;
$noguestp = 0;
$invfri = 1;
$sppd = 1;
$al = 1;
$whereis = 1;
$showmove = 1;
$apic = 1;
$hmail = 1;
$slpoller = 1;
$BCSmile = 1;
$BCLoad = 1;
$showreg = 1;
$pmmaxquota = "256";
$maxsig = "20";
$gtoff = '-5';
$datedis = 0;
$timedis = 1;
$maxmess = 24;
$maxdis = 24;
$mbname = q*Japanese Vintage Guitars*;
$picheight = "250";
$picwidth = "170";
$btod = 1;
$sauser = 1;
$mmpp = 25;
$iptimeout = 4;
$vhtdmax = 50;
$htdmax = 25;
$enews = 1;
$showgender = 1;
$totalpp = 20;
$memguest = 0;
$gsearch = 0;
$showdes = 1;
$sall = 0;
$vradmin = 2;
$showtheme = 1;
$sview = 1;
$quickreg = 1;
$showactive = 1;
$logactive = 1;
$showevents = 1;
$reversesum = 0;
$gdisable = 1;
$redirectfix = 0;
$pmdisable = 0;
$languagep = "English";
$allowrate = 1;
$nocomma = qq~,~;
$html = 1;
@htmls = ();
$hiddenmail = 2;
$nonotify = 0;
$polltop = 1;
$pollops = "4";
$gtzone = "-5";
$quickreply = 1;
$gmaxsmils = 2;
$maxmesslth = 0;
$maxsumc = "0";
$upevents = 31;
$hideposts = 0;
$ensids = 0;
$showlocation = 1;
$enbdays = 1;
$emailadmin = 1;
$maxattempts = 3;
$loginfailtime = 30;
$enablerep = 0;
$modifytime = 24;
$gattach = 1;
$maxmodifycount = 1;
$showloggedon = 1;
$disablesn = 1;
$disabledel = 1;
$fancyqprofile = 1;
$quickmsearch = 1;
$enablecal = 6;
$showads = 5;
$displayadverts = qq~~;
$disableads = "";
$nocomputers = "0";
$forumstats = 0;
$eclick = 1;
$uextlog = 0;
$kelog = 1;
$logip = 1;
$logcnt = "1440";
$logdays = 1000;
$activeuserslog = 180;
$hideclog = 1;
$hideelog = 1;
$newsboard = "007";
$newsshow = 6;
$newslength = 2000;
$yabbconver = 0;
$encryption = 0;
$md5upgrade = 0;
$akismetkey = '';
$akismetcheck = 0;
$showage = 0;
$repscore = 2;
$menutext = 2;
$posttext = 2;
$indextext = 0;
$advancedhtml = 0;
1;

I posted another thread on this board about Templates not working, all else works fine as you can see by the links I provided there. Can you help with this?