I give up, when I google search for old topics the links to the results from the old forum are dead links. The old forum was loaded with years of expertise and advice it now seems to be inaccessible, if not, how do we link to it?

When we converted the old database to the new one, some of the posts didn't make it because of special characters that weren't accepted by the conversion script. However, most of the posts made it. You should be able to find them with a forum search or Google search. Old posts often have some strange looking characters in them now but the information is still legible.

The hosting service was charging Christine $100 more each year to maintain the old version of PHP which was used by the old forum, which is why we gave up the old forum. We made backups of the old database but it's tough to find specific posts since we haven't found a good way to load the old data. Give me an example, Bob, and maybe I can help find it in the old database and bring it over to the new one.

Thanks Andy,
I couldn't link directly from google, but when I copy and paste the google search result address in the forum search bar I get the desired result. Old dog new tricks syndrome for me.
Regards Bob