Setting up my own server (nothing commercial, just learning :)

Recommended distros, security issues, other things I should know?

[j4mes]

Hi all,

Since my maximum connection speed is about to be taken up about 20 notches, I've been considering setting up my own server, primarily for learning how it's all done, gaining a bit of knowledge/experience/etc. (I'll stick with my current host for my sites right now ;)

Obviously I want a GNU/Linux box, Apache, etc., but being fairly new to this I wondered if anyone wanted to make suggestions as to recommended distros (Redhat? [or equivalent - white box/GPL Linux/etc.], Debian? Slack?) and the things it needs on it (Apache etc.)

More importantly, what security issues do I need to be aware of? There wont be anything of much value on this testing box (maybe someone would like to try hacking it when it's all together?) but I'd like to know the implications of running the various pieces of software, etc.

Many thanks,

James.

[iseff]

If you're going the Linux road, I would have to recommend Debian for you. I assume this is going to be a server you rarely use (that is, a server which you're not developing on or anything like that) -- in which case you can install debian with no X-windows, and choose exactly which packages you want to install, using the clean apt interface. Plus, if you go with stable, it might be old -- but it is *damn* stable for sure. The unstable version is even stable! :)

What you need installed on it depends on what you're doing. If it's a web server, you'll probably want: Apache/PHP (i use apache 2, but a lot of people use apache 1.3; and now that php5 is released you could install that!), possibly a db -- usually PostgreSQL or mySQL are the obvious choices (i use mySQL), certainly you'd want to run an ssh server (which also implies running an sftp server so no need for insecure telnet/ftp). You'll want some sort of editor for config files and simple HTML changes - so maybe vim or emacs without X support.

For a fully functional web server, that's about all you'd need. And that's only like four commands using apt! :) If you wanted to add a mail server, you could do that, too. I prefer qmail as the MTA, Courier for IMAP (I don't use POP at all), and for web mail I use SquirrelMail. Plus, I have some add-on's installed, like SpamAssassin, qmail-stats, etc. [qmailrocks.org ] is a great resource for all those!

Good luck! :)
Ian

[Leosghost]

squirrelmail is a bit loose ..security wise ..depends on the apache your putting it with ...if you do ..