Network Server Advice

[Drobbins]

Hey All,

I am back again, i have just taken delivery of a brand new Dell Precision T3400 it has 1GB ram and 500GB internal disk space.

My question is can i use this as a file server, ftp server & webserver and if so what would be the best way to do this?

Currently i have my imac connected to 2 external hard disks, 1 500GB (currently used for time machine) & 1x1TB (currently used for movies & media) i want my mac to use the precision to get all my videos for FrontRow and my Music for Itunes i also want my documents and pictures stored on here also, all this would need to be accessible anywhere on the network including the Mac downstairs.

I am looking for some adivce, the most i want to do is buy a new hard disk for the precision to run along side the existing 500GB .

Cheers
Rich

[adam1701]

sure you want to host a website/ftp from a home pc ?

[Drobbins]

sure you want to host a website/ftp from a home pc ?

Not as such host;

A) i want the webserver local only
B) i want the ftp to be accessable from outside the network so i can access the files on the server from anywhere
c) i want all my media, videos, documents basically everything that is on my imac's external disk on the server for everyone on my network to access.

Rich

[peterb]

FTP on an open server is generally not a good idea - it is insecure (so anyone can read it in transit) and you need to be careful allowing any external access. SSH is a much better proposition. You can run apache and get web access to your files, and use some of Apache's security features (you can use SSL if you want to encrypt data).

If you are serious about running this as a server, you need to look at either a Linx distro aotr one of the windows server products (Home server may be of use, but it isn't something I have used) Alternatively (and possibly the simplest solution) you could set up a VPN path to your router, if it supports VPN.

[Drobbins]

FTP on an open server is generally not a good idea - it is insecure (so anyone can read it in transit) and you need to be careful allowing any external access. SSH is a much better proposition. You can run apache and get web access to your files, and use some of Apache's security features (you can use SSL if you want to encrypt data)..

Ah right i was unaware of this, i think that would be a better option, i am looking at upgrading the router at the front door to my network at somepoint to a draytek one which should provide more in terms of scalability on the network.

If you are serious about running this as a server, you need to look at either a Linx distro aotr one of the windows server products (Home server may be of use, but it isn't something I have used) Alternatively (and possibly the simplest solution) you could set up a VPN path to your router, if it supports VPN.

I am serious about getting this set us as a server, i have looked at a linux distro, currently ubuntu is installed on their, not a server OS i know but still it was just something i was playing with, however in a ideal world i would really like to get my hands on a copy of Windows Server 2003 as i would like to set up a AD with Domain and this would also provide me some experiance in the Windows Sever field as it is something i am lacking.

Thanks for the reply's so far, hope to get a bit more inpout on this

Rich

[peterb]

There is less difference bwtween a Linux server and desktop distro than between Windows products. A linux "desktop" installation only differs from the Server installation in the apps that load by default, so what starts off as desktop will just as happily act as a server by adding the apps (my Webserver/mailserver/fileserver can be used quite happily and concurrently as a desktop machine).

The same is not necessarily true of a Windows product. That said, you can run Apache quite happily on Windows desktop products, along with MySQL and PHP to operate a CMS system

While SSH (server) is really a Linux application (I don't know if there is a Windws SSH server) but there is an excellent Windows SSH client, Putty, that works very well.

[Splash]

I've used http://www.bitvise.com/winsshd in the past - free for personal use.

[Drobbins]

So what would one suggest?

[peterb]

That's useful to know - thank you. I guess best use would be to SSH in for remote admin purposes using CLI although I see it supports remote desktop.

So what would one suggest?

Well I use Fedora (6) but Ubuntu would work with the appropriate apps. Ubuntu is Debian based, but any of the mainstream distos would be OK, Mandrake, Knoppix, Fedora, Centos, SuSE spring to mind. Open BSD is (I think) Unix, the others are Linux which is Unix like. Basically what you feel comfortable with.

Windows 2003 would work, but of course at a cost premium. Personally I'd stay with Linux, but if you want to use this as a self teaching project (which is what I did with Linux) then that is as good a justification as any! (Sorry - that isn't meant to sound patronising!)

[Splash]

That's useful to know - thank you. I guess best use would be to SSH in for remote admin purposes using CLI although I see it supports remote desktop.

I used it for SFTP backup dumps of a couple of websites I was taking care of at the time, and I didn't have the resources to setup a nix box to look after it, though the remote command line is as handy as it is under nix.

[mycarsavw]

So what would one suggest?

I too started off with an Ubuntu Desktop installation and added all the packages needed to make it a "proper" server.

After I'd got it up and running and knew, roughly, what I was doing I wiped it all off and started afresh using an Ubuntu Server ISO

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ubuntu-710...ver-setup.html

That's the guide I used, it's old, but the details are still pertinent.

Install all the bits you need (LAMP) in the Desktop environment, work out how they function, what you can do with them and when you're happy consider starting over with a server ISO.

[Drobbins]

Thanks guys I have found a guide on howtoforge on installing LAMP so i am going to do that tonight, how do i setup 'shares' so that i can put all my music and stuff on this server? Ubuntu.

Rich

[mycarsavw]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpSamba

Have a read of that