Re: New user questions :)

[Jorn Argelo]

Graham Bentley wrote:
[snip]
Install the ports tree, use CVSUP to get the latest version of the ports 
tree (if you don't know how to do that, go to the FreeBSD website and 
search the handbook)

Heres my immediate shortlist :-
Setting up DHCP for LAN Clients
 

cd /usr/ports/net/isc-dhcp3-server && make all install clean
Last time I played with DHCP I didn't had too much success, but I was 
still a complete *nix newbie back then. Ever since I'm just using the 
DHCP server of my router.

Synchronising time for LAN Clients
 

No idea how to do that. Probably setting up an NTP server, and get some 
Windows software to sync the system time with an NTP server.

Setting up Samba to Share Files on a Wingroup
 

cd /usr/ports/net/samba && make all install clean
Setting up a print server for Winclients
 

cd /usr/ports/print/cups && make all install clean
Do note that the configuration of cups can be bit tricky. I never got 
cups fully up and running.

Using Samba as a Virtual CD-ROM Server
 

I suppose that is just a matter of configuring Samba.
Web Services (Apache / FTP)
 

cd /usr/ports/www/apache(2) && make all install clean
If you want to build apache2 then type apache2 instead of apache.
cd /usr/ports/ftp/proftpd
Admin access over ssh
 

Standard included during a FreeBSD installation. Do note that root 
doesn't automatically has access to the SSH server.

LAN Mail Hub (Postifx / Fetchmail?)
 

Sendmail is standard installed during an FreeBSD installation. Though 
you can always build Postfix or Fetchmail if you prefer.

Checking for security / software updates
 

Suscribe to the freebsd-announce mailing list
and updatig the system
 

It is all described in the e-mail from freebsd-annnounce how and when to 
update your system with the proper patch.

I am sure some of these tasks are fairly easy and very similar
to that in the Linux world although I would welcome any advice / comments.
 

As long as you're comfortable with the configurations of the services 
you require, then there is not really a problem. FreeBSD has proven 
itself to be a robust and stable system in critical production 
enviroments. It's no wonder why every service from Yahoo runs on FreeBSD 
(except for launch.com, but that's no wonder)

I also wondered if there is a project based on FreeBSD that
achieves similar goals to SME Server (ie all in one LAN server
with Web config) or similar to Trustix (ie minimal config with
series of scripts to configure server services.
 

Not that I know of. Just build things from the ports tree.
I would also welcome comments on FreeBSD security / frequency of updates
and how to keep the installation updated ?
 

See my above mentioned note about freebsd-announce
Also, what is the roadmap / lifespan of FreeBSD ?
 

It's still in active development, and the developers are still steadily 
coding on FreeBSD. Do keep in mind that FreeBSD is not a company; it's a 
project where programmers are participating on from all over the world. 
Which is a good thing of course, since you can get one of the best OSs 
out there for free :)

Sorry about the length of this post :)
 

No worries, I hope I gave you the information you were seeking.
Cheers,
Jorn
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