Define Homepage Aliases - not working?

Do I understand correctly that the URLs entered into this field will 301 redirect to the defined homepage?

I've entered
Newbie Universe | Internet Marketing Forum and Tutorials
Newbie Universe | Internet Marketing Forum and Tutorials
Newbie Universe | Internet Marketing Forum and Tutorials

But none of them redirect, they still all come up as valid pages.
(Yes, I've CHMODded the config file and it looks like the entry takes).

Any suggestions?

You should not include the domain name. just forums/index.php and its variants

I tried that. Also tried just index.php and its variants - those don't force redirects, either. Any other thoughts - any other settings that could be interfering, perhaps?

Hello,

Did you set your 'Script Name for Forum Home Page' setting on Admin CP to 'index'? (with no quotes)

That might be the cause of the issue.

No, I left it set at 'forum' (no quotes).

What if you change that to 'index'?. You are not using vB 4 Publishing Suite anyway.

I'm getting into stuff that makes me nervous here - since I've already set up the forums and they're running.

I assume that
1. making that change means I have to follow the instructions in the CP, and "manually rename the forumhome PHP script to match the new value."
2. the renaming they're referring to is in the file /forums/index.php

Here's where I run into a jam.
That file has two active commands, including:
require('forum.php');
So I'm guessing that's what I would rename as index.php
But I don't know if that will screw up everything that's on the forum now.
Any thoughts?

You don't need to rename nor apply any changes to your *.php files. The vB index.php file 'works' as a page render, that means it will call your forum.php as long as "require('forum.php');" is enabled and "require('content.php');" is commented out.

OK, I changed it to index, but that didn't take care of the problem either. I've now switched it back.

Hmm weird. Are you putting in the script names only?. The format you should follow is:

index.php
index.php?
forum.php
forum.php?

with no trailing slash nor "forums/" prefix. If so, please let us know to try something else.

Cut and paste from the settings:
forums/index.php
forums/index.php?
forums/forum.php

Try instead:

index.php
index.php?
forum.php
forum.php?

As stated in this thread earlier, I already tried that.

Please open up a support ticket with Admin CP and vBSEO CP login details for troubleshooting.

Update: The aliases supplied in post #12 did the trick.