[Wayne Luke]

That two-click upgrade leaves your forums vulnerable to security breaches as well. I guess SMF didn't tell you that. In order for your server to overwrite your code files, they need to by writable by the server. This allows things like the Yahoo Counter trojan to spread across a server hitting every site and infecting thousands of end users. In the past it was a worm specifically designed to infect phpBB installations by exploiting a quick upgrade system like this. They don't even have to attack your site. Just attack a site on your server.

All in all you're forums will need to be offline for less than 10 minutes to upgrade if you have a decent internet connection. Turn them off, Upload Files, Create database Backup, Run Upgrade script, turn them on. If you have SSH access you can lower this to less than a minute or two using this technique.