mack - 1:17 am on Mar 1, 2009 (gmt 0)

Hi again,

My take in this would be to base your descision about operating system/server environment on your chosen web host. That way you are able to more or less build a clone within your lan of the server in the "wild"

For example if your host runs red hat, get the same version and run it locally. A massive advantage I find with this, is being able to set the server up in the same way as your host. Right down to file paths and database names/usernames.

I tend to use shell quite a lot when "talking" to my server, but there are some pretty decent open source tools out there that will give you a fairly good GUI to admin your server. Webmin is a great example of just such an app.

Cloning your host is a great way to know your site will work on your host. It also allows you to have the live site and your dev site, make all your tests locally then FTP the lot to the server.

My typical setup is a Linux Lan server with SSH, ftp access and a web host with FTP. Having a dedicated lan server just gives you a lot of control over the entire process.

Another option open to you is to simply do all the dev and testing in the live server, but possibly password protect the entire site until its finished. This would be a more cost effective solution, but may not give you quite as much control.

I like the idea of having a server on lan because its a backup if nothing else. Somewhere to test new ideas before releasing them.

Mack.

Edit for typo(s)

[edited by: mack at 4:43 am (utc) on Mar. 1, 2009]