There are a lot of options when it comes to free forum hosts.
ActiveBoard.com has great free forums. It is easy to use and has all the features one would expect.
Also, forumotion.com is one of the best free community hosts you'll ever find. I would recommend this to anyone in need of forums.
phpBB is software that you have to download and install onto your server or web host. That being said there are a lot of hosts that will take care of that for you for a fee. Just search for "phpBB hosting" or something like that. However, you will be responsible for maintaining the software. Alternatively, you can use a free forum host like ActiveBoard.com. It works very much the same way as phpBB but ActiveBoard.com hosts the forum for you for free.
http://www.forumer.com/ is a free website to host forums on, and after doing so you can customize it to fit the style of a roleplaying forum you like.
Ono's Answer: try out Vbulletin out or Forumotion. Really they're are tons of sites to choose from, just put Free forum on Google. I use http://www.podserver.info/ since they let you have access to FTP, PHP, and MySQL unlike most free hosts that block you from access on forums. You have full control over your forum. Plus, they are free.
One can create a personal Intel developer forum for free simply by visiting the Intel website and starting a forum there, one does not necessarily need to use Intel there are many forums available.
You will need to sign up for a web host (like Godaddy.com or Aplus.net). For a small forum a shared hosting plan is fine. Try to find one that includes the option to install a forum for free (Godaddy does this). If your hosting plan doesn't include forum installation, you can easily it yourself. You will need to create a mysql database. Then download your forum software (phpbb.com is a good free one). Follow the installation instructions.
I assume you want to create an online discussion forum. What you are looking for is something called a "forum host" there are lots of them but I would recommend ActiveBoard.com. Simply go to ActiveBoard.com and click sign up. You should be done in about 5 minutes.
In some situations you do need to pay and some you don't. You can always create a free forum. If you want to upgrade your forum or give it a domain name without the manufacturer's address in it you will. There are both free forum hosts and paid hosts. A paid forum will generally offer more features while a free forum may have advertisements or limit to the number of users. Activeboard.com offers both paid and free forums and you can switch back and forth at anytime.
If your wanting a forum use "ProBoards" they offer free forum hosts for a website I would recommend "GoDaddy". I have personally not used "GoDaddy" but have use "ProBoards" extensively.
Free Forum was created on 2004-01-13.
InvisionFree is a website that offers free forum hosting services for people. You can create a fan forum and discuss just about any topic on it. You can have a forum based on movies, music, a sports team and anything else.
Find a free host with a script installer option, Find the vBulletin option, and install it. The rest should be easy from that point on.
Many public forums offer free software to create "main forums". However, an individual may choose to create a dedicated website for their forum. This would require purchasing a domain, which usually starts under 9.99$ (USD) a month.