Here's an update on my situation at this time.
I decided to start all over with moving my ubbthreads to a new server.
I restored the SQL files on the new server with no problems or messages. The sql database as restored had a different userid and password than on the old system.
I restored the ubbthreads directory from my old server. The paths in the new server are the same as in the old server.
I changed permissions as noted in the install docs to 777 and 666 where needed.
Using the original config file with no changes I get
UBB Message
We encountered a problem. The reason reported was
Database error only visible to forum administrators
Please click back to return to the previous page.
So I left the config file alone and changed the database userid and password to match the original system.
With the correct password I get ...
The page isn't redirecting properly
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.
This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.
Any new thoughts? I'm on 7.5.7. (I did open a support ticket. But I am hoping that someone here has some ideas.)
Since I get an actual Ubbthreads formatted message when I start it up using an incorrect SQL user/password, then get the redirect error after I correct the SQL userid/password it seems like there is something in the database that may be causing the redirect. Are there any command line parameters that I can issue that might help in that area?