I have been running/hosting an XOOPS site for quite a few years now (www.winterslegacy.com) and while it still runs 'just fine' it is an older version of XOOPS and the forums are the 'forum' module which says that it is 'version 1' an enhanced version of phpBB 1.4.4.

I have considered upgrading to a newer version of XOOPS several times and have poked around a bit from time to time with getting a newer version up and running with a similar forum module however I've never gotten it to work to the point where I felt it would be possible to switch over.

One of the main reasons I would like to upgrade (and there might be a better solution for this) is that with all of the SMTP port blocking that ISP's tend to do these days I can no longer get email out (for new account requests etc) via my server and connection, whereas I have been able to get mail out using smarthost with newer versions of XOOPS in my tests.

So, my question is, is what suggestions would you guys have for upgrading XOOPS while retaining 6 years worth of forum activity? A newer forum style probably wouldn't be that bad IF I could reliably get all the old forum data converted over to the new... or is there maybe a quick and easy hack to get email out with this older version of XOOPS in todays smtp phobic ISP world?