Thank you all for the various answers. To answer some of the questions: Yes, I have a hardware firewall in my router (Linksys) and I've checked it out via Gibson Research and it came up very secure. This is for a home network so right now there is the router after the cable modem plus another router upstairs to supply the wireless for my notebook and one computer and to do wired service to two other systems. All at this time are Windows XP or W2000K. I'd like to have a server for files like music (mp3) or movies and anything else like that. I currently have my domain hosted for e-mail only via Telus but I'd like to be able to do that myself and save the money as well as be able to build a web site eventually. I get the idea that I should do that on a separate system from the File Server and that Ubuntu seems to be the most common choice right now. I've got a couple of systems in the Pentium IV 2.5/2.8 + 1 to 1.5GB RAM range that I'm assuming would work for this. I'd have to check out Hard Drive sizes, especially for the file server. I'm building another system that's much more powerful, but that'll go to one of my daughters and free hers up for Linux use as one of the above. None of the other hardware associated with those particular systems is "leading edge". One is basically a music file server unofficially right now anyway. That one's running W2K.
I guess I'll try putting all the pieces together and see what I've got. I guess finishing the one for my daughter to free her hardware up should come first. Thanks to all for the answers and I'm sure I'll be back eventually with more questions. David Brewerton ----- Original Message ---- From: Kin C Wong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: CLUG General <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 10:59:34 AM Subject: Re: [clug-talk] Server software choice Before answering your question, I was wondering if you have a firewall setup between your internal network and the Internet, if not, one consideration is IPCOP, which is fairly simple to setup. As for distros, it is very much what works for you. As a general comment, some people find Suse somewhat blotted particularly is you are running on equipment that lack sufficient power. There is also the heated debate that Suse has sold their soul in a pact with Microsoft. Ignoring the politics, I have heard from several people that it worked great on their laptop and had problems with other distros. Though I don't use Linspire personally, I started to play with their distro back when they were still called Lindows and admire their CNR - 'Click N Run' installation approach. Both these distros are really good for user machines. Personally, I used ubuntu -- mainly because of the small footprint, the available support and the available instructions, blogs, books, etc available. As a nube, this was important for me to follow allong. With regards to file a fileserver, most seasoned linux user would say that it is a cinch to setup -- well either I'm stupid or I'm missing something simple, but after following more than 4 documents on how to set one up I have not been able to do this successfully in a mixed platform environment. However, I did have really good luck with www.ebox-platform.com - they also have a live cd for you to take a spin. A word of caution though, they try to do everything including dhcp server, firewall, email, etc. - you don't want more than one dhcp server on you network and having a firewall physically on a box with your internal network is probably not best practise. I have only used the file server and the ntp time server portions though as an email server, it handles multiple domains. Best of luck David Brewerton wrote: > A general question from a Linux newbie. My goal is to set up a file server > with the hope that the same system could also be the host for my own domain. > Computer parts aren't a problem as I've got lots hanging around, but I'm > looking for a recommended hardware set up and what version/distro of Linux > would be best to use to do this. I've got SUSE & Linspire already but am > debating Ubuntu. > > David Brewerton > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying > > _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
