Thanks, it worked!
For those in the same boat, here's what I did:
1) Got a new website: forum.mySite.tuxfamily.org. See http://faq.tuxfamily.org/WebArea/En
2) Got a new mysql datatbase for that website: mySite_forumdb. Note db name and user name are the same. Set a db passsword. See: http://faq.tuxfamily.org/DbMySQL/En
3) Downloaded punBB from http://punbb.informer.com/wiki/downloads
4) Unzipped to a local folder, renamed it punbb from punbb_1.3.6 for no good reason.
5) Ftp'd punbb folder to htdocs folder in forum.mySite.tuxfamily.org
6) Using a browser, went to http://forum.mySite.tuxfamily.org/punbb … nstall.php
7) Filled in form. Note Database type is mysql standard, and server is sql:3306 per http://faq.tuxfamily.org/DbMySQL/En
Results: forum created at:http://forum.khandesktop.tuxfamily.org/punbb/index.php
Logged into forum admin - informed me a new version is available - 1.4.2