Help required creating local webserver machine, please

[DaKid]

Heya guys,

Hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I think I know what I want, but not quite sure how to get there!

What I'm after is a cheap way to run my own, local, silent webserver. I wish to be able to connect (via putty and winscp) to transfer files and access the command-line interface, and I also wish to be able to install and run apache and tomcat webservers (for Java/J2EE development) and also MySQL. I have a Netgear DG834Gv3 router, which has a DMZ ability, and so I'd figured I could get a small, very low powered machine to accomplish all this, which I could connect as part of the DMZ and which would then leave the rest of my network fairly secure.

Any thoughts on all this, please? I'd much prefer to buy an off-the-shelf machine, rather than building my own. I'm happy building a desktop PC from scratch with individual components, but this seems a lot more work.

Thanks for any help

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you intend to build your own PC then this thread maybe useful:

http://forums.hexus.net/small-form-f...ll-factor.html

[Flash477]

If you all you want is a simple web server and command line interaction then just stick a copy of linux on the machine - linux will run great on just about anything

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A cheap Atom based machine and a suitable Linux distro will do the job. Also most of the motherboards are mini ITX so you could end up with quite a small and quiet machine.

This website maybe of use:

http://linitx.com/

[peterb]

I'm runningv a webserver using a 1,2Ghz Via processor (in a mini-itx case) with a linux distro and apache.

Alternatively, if you have a windows machine handy and yiu want to play around with apache first, try WAMP.

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

[razor92]

Personally I would avoid putting it in a DMZ.

1) Because DMZ will normally force all connection through to the server, and cut off the rest of your network from the internet. This means that you will have to make your server port forward stuff back on to your network. And this is just plain messy and difficult. (However if you want to set up a proper exchange server, and have a really cool super firewall network that runs through a server that is super locked down and stuff, then DMZ is the way to go)

2) All you really need to do is port forward port 80 (tcp, for web server) onto your server, and maybe also port 21 (tcp, for ftp server). Also you can port forward remote desktop stuff if you really want.

Finally, some advise on the best way to get your own domain name directed at you server. I would recommend a domain name provider like domain monster (google it). And a the DNS everydns.net as it is both free and support dynamic ip's. Also if you want more help feel free to PM me.