Can anyone help me set up a server?

Hi all, I've decided to take my internet to the next level. I want to have my own server, so I can host my own websites and databases.

What I have for machinery:

Imac g3 450 512 ram 80 gig hd partitioned with os 9 os 10 and linux(not installed yet)
emac g4 1000 768ram 80 gig hd
generic pc 1800mhz 80 gig hd 512 ram (current 98 se)
emachines 1500 xp pro
generic box 1000mhz unknown other stats xp pro

I'm not sure which to use for the server, but the 98 box isn't used much, but is a low quality box. That in itself isn't really a problem as later I could upgrade if I go with the pc platform.

Being relatively new to server stuff, I have no preferences as to mac linux widows apache etc. I just want to start out right and go from there. I think I have some old server (windows) software laying around, and could even get the newer version.

The sites I will be hosting will need mailing list, associate tracking, shopping carts, all the good e-commerce stuff. These will all be my sites, and intermittent downtime is not a big issue.

Soooo any suggestions insights help are welcome. Tell of your experiences good or bad, pro cons of server software, hardware, recommendations, and keep in mind that I'm a construction worker gone bad (turning geek)

 

First thing I would do is go out and get some good books on Linux, PHP, Apache, and Networking administration. Problem with setting up a server is that if you do not take care of the security issues, then when you do get hit by someone that destroy's all of your hard work, you end up having to rebuild from scratch.

As for what machine to use, depends on how many users are going to be accessing the machine. Personnally if I was setting up a server, I would have one control the database, one to host the site, and one to mirror the site incase it goes down. Also running RAID would be a suggestion for setting up the hard drives.

The key is redundancy.