I am looking to set up a web server

[Scot L. Harris]

On Mon, 2005-01-24 at 16:26, Jeff Henager wrote:
> This is a pretty generic request at this point. I am running SuSE 
> Personal 9.0 at home, but want to setup a web server to host my domain 
> name. I am tired of depending on a third party to host my site, because 
> of a few outages and I want more control.
> I found this site http://atia.homelinux.net/~obsidian_fox/Linux_Box/, 
> that talks about using a old box to host your own domain. I have a dual 
> processor (Tomcat IV) that should be adequate for my site, and I thought 
> I would try Fedora on it.
> I don't have a lot of traffic, and only need email. My hosting is paid 
> up through May of this year, so I have time to set it up right.
> Does anyone have any experience with this that they would be willing to 
> share? I have some knowledge of UNIX/Linux, but am no expert, that's for 
> sure.
> Just looking to get started. I figure I can download/burn the ISOs tonight.
> I appreciate any help offered.
> 
> >  
> >


To setup a site you will most likely need to setup the following
services:

DNS
email
web server

You may benefit from a How to guide recently listed on this list:

Linux Home Server HOWTO:  http://www.brennan.id.au

It had a lot of good info.

For web server you should run Apache (httpd).  Please read the release
notes and other documentation if you are not familiar with it.  It is
fairly straight forward to setup for simple sites.

email has a number of package choices.  I personally use sendmail but
there are other packages that are just as good.  PLEASE PLEASE read a
book on your particular MTA and make sure it is not permitting relaying
of spam.

Also I recommend you implement greylisting and spamassassin on which
ever MTA you choose.  These will block virtually all spam destined to
your site.

DNS can be an issue depending on how you plan to set it up.  If you want
to run the DNS servers for your domain you should arrange to have at
least two or three DNS servers, not all at the same location.  This
provides redundancy in case connections go down.  Of course you may not
worry about that so much.  Or you can sign up for one of the many DNS
hosting services available.  They generally don't cost much and allow
you to manage your own entries including MX entries (used for email). 
Some of this depends on if you have a static IP address or if you are
using a dynamic IP.  Some of the DNS services will even work with
dynamic IP addresses.

You will also want to invest in a firewall or at the very least learn
and implement iptables on your server correctly.

Personally a dedicated firewall device (either purchased or a dedicated
linux box that does nothing but the firewall) should sit between your
servers and the Internet.  

Security should be a concern in everything server, services, packages,
etc.


-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else.