@deha That totally worked! thank you so much

@deha thanks for the tip! I will give that a try as well. I had kinda just given up on the replica set connection for a while and was just using a single mongodb instance for dev. Appreciate everyone's help

I have put the config in like this:

{
  "mongo": {
    "host": "this-is-the-first-shard.mongodb.net,shard2-name-here.mongodb.net,shard3-namehere.mongodb.net",
    "port":"27017,27017,27017" 
  }
}

since they all have the same port number should I do it more like @baris second example with the

{
  "mongo": {
    "uri": "mongodb://127.0.0.1,127.0.0.1:27018"
  }
}

? Thank you for the help

On a side note I am also able to connect to a mLab mongoDB just fine, so it must be the config for connecting to a mongodb with a replica set really wanted to use Atlas free tier with the replica set...

I was able to get my nodebb install up and working with local version of mongoDB running, but for whatever reason I cannot seem to figure out how to connect and set up my nodebb install to connect to my atlass db and replica set.

I have messed around with the mongo.conf file a bit but am unsure how to add the three mongoDbs to it and how it all needs to be written oout.

Has anyone done this, or is their a better service that atlas that you would suggest. Many thanks!!! So far I have really enjoyed messing with nodebb on a local level and just would like to mess around with a VPS, I am currently using digital ocean for vps.