Running a server

Hey Geeks.

Got a couple of questions for ya! The main one being, how do you set up a server? Here's the situation: I've got this 3 year old computer (Pentium III, 869 Mhz or something like that, 20 gig HD, 40 gig HD, ATI Radeon 850 video card, Soundblaster, 512 MB RAM) sitting around doing nothing. I was planning on fiddling around with Linux on the thing, but I got a successful dual boot going on my main computer, so that's where I do most of my Linux fiddling. I was thinking of transfering the 40 gig HD to my main computer...and maybe the soundcard too. After that, though, I thought it would be cool to set up a server to, I don't know, store a web-page and email domain (you know, one with my own personal web address or something like that). So, how do I do that? What do I need to do that?

I know the questions are kinda broad, but I have no idea where or even how to start with something like this. If you need more info, let me know, and I'll post it.

Thanks a bunch!

 

Well, get rid of the sound card to start with.

If its got onboard graphics, then use it. There is no point whatsoever using a graphics card for a server which is never going to display anything other than a GUI all day.

Make sure you have the best NIC drivers you can. If you've got some money to spend get a decent NIC because this will improve performance fairly considerabley.

You could put Linux on it, but IMX its more hassle than its worth. I just bit the bullet and went and got Windows Server 2003. It's very efficient, and on that particular machine it runs faster than Debian with Apache, so I'm happy.

Making a web-server/email server all depends on what OS you're using. With Windows it really is quite easy, on both accounts. If you ever have any problems : PERMISSIONS FIRST. IMX thats nearly always the problem. if you copy files over the network to your server, then it will usually retain the same permissions if both drives are NTFS formatted.

With IIS or Apache, you can install PHP, MySQL, and the advantage of IIS is it supports ASP properly as well. Good for running cool websites

My home DSL Server:
www.goldfishsbowl.co.uk
www.totalkrap.tk
www.hypostasis.co.uk
www.drawtheband.co.uk

With a normal ADSL connection you can support a fair few visitors, as long as you throttle the total bandwidth available for each website, so you don't get "hogs" (like www.goldfishsbowl.co.uk ) taking up all the CPU/bandwidth, if you just so happen to be slashdotted or whatever.

Learn about the server software you want to use. Get a book about it. Its invaluble

 

Oh, I've made an article on my blog on how to set up a home server.
How to run your own home Server - Part 1

I'll be doing Part 2 next week when I've got the time

 

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with 5 Client Access License $979.30
seeing as we are suposed to promote buying software licences for all our products i would recomend finding an extra copy of windows xp and throwing it on that extra box. just share folders and use it as a file server.

 

You don't need standard edition, just get Web Server edition. It's cheaper (only $399). You don't need any CAL's at all, because you're not going to be running a domain!

And if you read my article, you can see that I explain the differences between Server 2003 and XP in terms of functionality.

I my server has 2003 on it because my company bought Web Edition for it. Handy, eh?