Server speccing

first timer need some help, please

[the_hussar]

first of all hello everyone,

i am in the process of building a website that does he following

user Bob gets to my website and fills in form A,
form A is sent to me, i verify his identity etc and put form A onto to database.
I send Bob a password and logon.
Bob logs on and fills out Form B,
Form B is stashed on database.
Bob can log on whenever he wants to change/review his data.

Form A has about 20 fields
Form B has about 60 fielss
there are about 80 bobs of which no more than 10 will be online together.

I am not expecting alot of traffic and the major concern is security as many of my Bobs cannot afford to have any outsider knowing some of the info on the form.

If i plan to use Fedora C6, Apache 1.3/2 and Mysql running from the same box what spec should it be as i don't know how much SQL eats resources.

Any help gladly taken.

Many thanks jamea

[jtara]

I doubt you need a dedicated server. Save some money and get VPS hosting. Since security is a concern, I'd avoid shared hosting.

While I run Fedora Core 6 as a test/development machine, it really isn't suitable for a production web server, since it is at the "bleeding edge" and has frequent (at least weekly) updates.

Use a more stable release. If you still want the "latest", you can go with RedHat Enterprise 5 (just released) or CentOS 5 (clone of RH5, I think not yet released). Both are roughly equivalent to FC5.

[the_hussar]

Thanks for info but at the moment i have the option of using 2U of rackspace for free as long as i supply the box myself. This has quite a few benefits namely all the physical access i want and i know everybody who will be anywhere near it which will help me rest easy.

FC6 is the setup i have most experience with but if you recommend something else then am all ears, have heard alot about OpenBSD being quite secure but never touched it.

out of interest what is the difference between shared and virtual hosting aside from allocated server cycles and ram? surely the files are still located in the same place on the physical server?
If anyone is wondering my background is actually in Comms systems and hence my limited knowledge on web servers and software.

[jtara]

out of interest what is the difference between shared and virtual hosting aside from allocated server cycles and ram?

With shared hosting, you are typically allocated a Linux user ID. Your files are in your home directory. Protection against snooping or alteration of your files by other users is dependent on the usual Linux file access controls.

It's quite common for other users to be able to browse your directories, and even read your files!

You typically get access to a shell session via SSH, and usually can run cron jobs, etc.

You typically share a single web server on a single IP address with all of the other users. The web server is configured to look for config files in some subdirectory of each user's home directory.

surely the files are still located in the same place on the physical server?

No, the files are not located in the same place at all.

With a VPS, your files are located within a filesystem image, which is itself typically found within a container file in the host OS's filesystem. Other users have absolutely no way to access your files.

[the_hussar]

thanks for clearing that up. just leaves the small point of still what i should be aiming for spec wise. the chances are that i'll pick up a 2nd hand rackmounted jobby and refit some it.