@SS

1). You don't need the /install directory, simply delete it and its contents. vBulletin runs, operates and functions without the directory. I delete it from all of my test and running installations.

2). Don't simply password protect the directories, rename them in config.php, rename them via FTP and then password protect them. Rename them to something only you know the name of and then block access to any viewing to that directory using Robots.txt for exclusion.


Given that, encoding your files really won't do too much good for you, though it will create the extra hassle of encoding them again and again when you upgrade.

Also note that while you may be encoding the PHP files, you're not encoding the output, so if there is a security issue and the "hacker" grabs or sees something within th HTML output that he can use, detecting your version number or other information really won't be that hard.

If your web server is secure, you really have no reason to encode your files. If you've not secured your web server down and locked down access, then it really won't matter if you encode your files or not :).