Hi I use SMF to run my forums, their setup is incredibly simple, you simply upload 1 file to the location you want it and run an on line install or you can just upload the whole thing yourself very easily

like mentioned here you wont need dedicated but avoid godaddy and streamline, 2 hosts that have had known issues with hosted forums

forums do take a while to get going, usually via word of mouth so start small, a free host could do or a cheap shared server would be ideal, google and other search engines take a while before they fully proporgate and can search your whole forum so dont expect millions of members from search engines within the first few months

Like I said I use SMF, it's free, their support team are just great and theres plenty of mods and skins for you to choose from, in my opinion it's not just the best free forum software out there, it's the best forum software full stop