Question about Portals?

[SuperCheetah]

I was wondering who here knows anything about portals. I've been surfing the forums over at www.phpbb.com and have gotten a general idea what they are, but I don't know they are set up and whatnot. I assume this is how Techspot is set up as people like Crazyace and Thomas can post articles as well. What I want to know is do I need to make a webpage first or do I need to install a portal and build from that? Also, since I'll be setting up a Linux server, how would I go about building a webpage through the portal and what language is it in, etc.??? Now I'm using Dreamweaver, but I don't want to keep building my page until I know what I'm doing and where I'm going.

If any of you guys can clear some of this up for me I would be appreciative. Thanks!!!