To install WSN, download the autosetup.php file from the big download button on the front page of the website. Upload the autosetup.php to your web server, then visit it and follow the instructions on screen. If you don't know how to upload to your web server or you have trouble installing, just request the free installation service listed in the site's services section or contact support.

During installation, you're prompted to select a simple or recommended configuration. The simple option is suited to a very simple site which doesn't need many features. The recommended option is the normal recommended configuration which 95% of users should leave selected. No matter which setup mode you choose, you'll still have all the options on your switches page to activate or deactivate later. You should just leave it as recommended unless you know your site will be very basic or you're overwhelmed by having options.

You'll also be prompted to select a series. Most people will want the current series, which is selected by default. If your company requires you to carefully test each new minor release before applying it, you'll want to select the stable series so that there are fewer changes.

The pre-load data area gives you the option to load certain data sets, such as a US-region forum structure. Below that, you'll see a checkbox to include geolocation data. Geolocation (provided by maxmind's geoip lite) will enable you to auto-detect what city the viewer is near, show everything in their timezone, and optionally show toplists of topics near their location. It uses a modest amount of memory (~40 MB) so most people will want to install the geolocation just in case it proves useful later. If you're making a mobile-oriented site, you may prefer to choose the more precise browser-based geolocation later at Admin Panel -> Settings -> Localization.

Next is the language selection. If you ever intent to use a language other than English on the site, make sure to either select the desired language from the options or use the "other" box to write in a new language. If your only language selection is English, WSN will put language directly into your templates to make your templates easier to read... this has the side effect of making translation difficult. If you have a non-English selection, you'll get the multilingual templates which keep the language abstracted to the language packs so you can translate easily via Admin Panel -> Customizations -> Language.

Note: If you wish, you can install a copy of WSN Links on your home PC to test by using XAMPP; however, if you do this WSN will be unable to send any emails and this will impair your experience so that you cannot test any features that involve email. For this reason, it's better to do your testing on a web host.