Setting up a web server

[n0gear]

Hi,

Just bought a IBM Netfinity 4500R server for next to nothing and thought I'd host my website from it. Its a simple website with only couple of pages and most of the traffic will go to a dedicated webshóp anyway.

Are there any simple FAQs around that would help install everything. Thought about using Ubuntus Server edition with Apache ... right way to go???

Would need to use it for my email accounts as well ... do I need to install seperate programs for it?


Thanks

ps. I know it would be easier to continue using a hosting company but wanna learn this anyways

[Skie]

I would start by hosting something that you don't normally use. If you switch your existing site and make a mistake, it may be some time before you fix the problems.

I'm not too familiar with Ubuntu Server, so I don't know what they include, but Apache should be included. For email (SMTP), Exim and Postfix seem to be the popular ones (sendmail as well, but not as popular as it used to be). You'll still need POP3 software and may as well just use what comes with Ubuntu Server. Then you'll need FTP software. I'm currently using PureFTP. I'm not too famliar with any other offerings. If you need a database, mySQL should be installed by default.

Each piece of the server will need to be configured and tested seperately as they have their own config files. Apache's config file is normally found at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.

[ebackhus]

I'm running Apache 2 on Ubuntu. If you go to Synaptics you can download and install Apache 2 and the necessary additionals with ease. From there it's pretty simple to add the files to the root web dir and start hosting. I'll try to help you with as much as I can but I am a n00b with Linux and am more familiar running Apache 2 under Windows.