Setting up a home server

[ghosstt]

OK, I've got some questions about setting up a home server. (Used to store files and media)

Here's my current setup:

cable wire --> modem --> linksys wrt54gs wireless router --> direct connection to my computer (linuxbox)
--> wireless feed to laptop downstairs (windows)

I'd like to incorporate a "server" of sorts into my network. The computer with the direct connection is currently running Ubuntu 9.10, but its only got a hard drive of about 70GBs, and its getting quite full. I was thinking about maybe setting up another desktop as a server (most likely with ubuntu server edition, or some other debian distro) to store my files on, as well as back-up the files that are on it, or local files on my current desktop. (Maybe even the laptop too) I'm reading a lot of stuff about doing something like this, but it involves setting up DHCP, DNS, gateways, etc, but the problem I see is that my router does all of this already for me. (No static IPs set up aside from the one on my 360) Is this feasible? How would I go about doing something like this?

cable wire --> modem --> linksys wrt54gs wireless router --> direct connection to my computer (linuxbox)
--> serverbox
I was thinking that it would be most efficient to run Ubuntu 9.10 desktop edition on my computer, and then use something like the Terminal Server Client to access the Serverbox for maintenance. What kind of software would I need on the server? Would just moving the files to it and accessing it from something like nautilis be good enough? I feel like theres something much more efficient and effective than that.

(Please don't suggest an external HD as a better option, because I'm doing this more for the experience of setting up a server, not the actual storage)

[bicostp]

Just use PuTTY if you need console access, you don't need to downgrade to Ubuntu. (It's crap even by desktop Linux standards. Run Debian Stable or Slackware, or better still *BSD or Solaris.)

As for the server, run FreeNAS.

http://freenas.org/freenas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Built in web management interface, basic web server, FTP, Samba, remote console, and Transmission (BitTorrent), all ready to activate and dead simple to configure.

[Sparkfist]

Well just to let you know if you want to do this more for a file server go with the standard desktop Ubuntu Edition. Cause unless you plan to make a webserver you have no need for the Apache, MySQL or PHP. As well having the GUI, well it kind of is lazy is a good option to have when configuring, cause if you don't have experience with a shell it can be tough.

I would also suggest that you look into Samba. It's what you'll need to have the server share files, printers and other network resources with Windows computers. Setting it up is a bit hit or miss, but that's to be expected, even experts find it tricky. But don't be discouraged it will be a great thing once you get it working.

I will mention right now, cause you'll have to do it eventually. Check your fstab configurations to setup the external hard drive to auto mount to a specific location. This will make it easier if you use an external for the bulk of your files. And further, just to make you aware that there is a performance lag when using NTFS under Linux, if you have the option go with Ext3, it's at least as good. You can get a Windows driver for it here.

Finally if you haven't looked check out Ubuntu's wiki. There are tones of guides and articles that will help you along on this. Anyways have fun.

-Sparkfist

[bicostp]

Sparkfist, if he's making a server he might as well go with FreeNAS. A fully installed copy only needs about 75 MB of drive space (IIRC), and it doesn't have the unnecessary bloat of a full desktop environment. Once you have it installed (very simple text mode installer), you can configure everything in the web interface without ever having to touch the shell again.

[smitty]

Or he could use Ubuntu Server like he said in the first place, use Webmin to set everything up, and use Nautilus to access the files, which is what I do. (well, it's my brother's server, so he did the Webmin part)

[bicostp]

Why do it the hard way?

You only need the web interface to do initial setup and manage BitTorrent. You can use Windows File Sharing (Samba) and FTP for actual file management. I'm sure whatever file manager Ubootoo has will connect to it fine.

[ghosstt]

Now, to be honest I'm not really sure what the benefits of running a web server at home would be. Can someone elaborate? I'm probably going to mostly use it as a file storage server, and a media serving server.

I was thinking of just using ubuntu server edition because it is what I'm used to so far. (Though I know it doesn't differ all that much from distro to distro)

[smitty]

Why do it the hard way?

You only need the web interface to do initial setup and manage BitTorrent. You can use Windows File Sharing (Samba) and FTP for actual file management. I'm sure whatever file manager Ubootoo has will connect to it fine.

Nautilus is Ubuntu's file manager.

[Sparkfist]

I'm suggesting using a full blown desktop for ease. Take baby steps, and learn how to do it. Once you know how it's done you can go onto the next which is cutting out a lot of the bloat or crutches, really making the system lean and fast.

Having a web server at home can be used for a few different things. You can use it for a personal web site (needs dynamic DNS to work), have a file server that people can access via web browser or ftp, there are other more creative ideas but non that I can think of. I think it's a nice way to use some older equipment and have something personal on the internet, and maybe share at the same time.

As for having a gui for remote connection, you need to have Xorg installed. Then remote into the system via ssh, and use the proper flag it will open a window that looks like the desktop. You can do anything then with the comfort of the gui. Also ssh is one of the best programs for remote connections and often comes standard on Linux distributions.

-Sparkfist

[ghosstt]

So how would setting up the website work? In simple terms, would I just run all of the html files, blah blah from the server, and then register a domain from a site and have it point to the home server?

I'm pretty sure I could go without the GUI, or at least just have one installed for a worst-case senario. (Just did a fresh install of regular ubuntu from a command line install, added some WMs manually.)

[bicostp]

The problem is, your home Internet connection is probably on a dynamic IP address, so you won't easily be able to point a traditional domain name to it. (You would have to request a static IP.) There are services like DynDNS where your server logs into their site and tells it where you are, so your subdomain redirects to the right place every time your IP changes.

http://www.dyndns.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another issue is most ISPs block incoming web server traffic, just so you don't run your own web server (for security and performance reasons). You would have to use a nonstandard port (for example yoursite.dyndns.com:8080) to get around that (after you set up port forwarding to let traffic from that port through to your server).

This site has some good information:
http://www.dslwebserver.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ghosstt]

OK, I should be doing this within the next week or so. Just a few questions.

I've got a donor PC that is an old gateway. Its a P3, with (i think) 128mb of RAM. All I need to do is purchase a bigger secondary HD, and a network card for it. Think that it will be fast enough to just act as a file server? (I'm not to worried about the speed of transfer. It will mostly be for backup data storage and music streaming. Maybe some torrenting for .iso's as well)

Here is the PC: (I'm pretty sure its the same one. Haven't turned it on in a while to check.)
any clue what size the mobo is? I'd like a smaller case if possible.
http://pcworld.about.com/news/Apr242001id48105.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I figure I'll just run a headless GUI version of ubuntu. (its what I'm most familiar with) I don't think I'll even bother with the server edition, because I don't need to run a LAMP server. (Or is the server edition optimized for file serving in general?)

[vskid]

That computer should be plenty good enough for anything besides streaming HD video.

[bicostp]

That computer should be plenty good enough for anything besides streaming HD video.

It might do streaming HD, depending on how much drive/network throughput it can handle. As long as the client PC is doing the decoding, it's just like any other huge file. A 1 ghz P3 is probably more than you need for that. Unless you want to do anything CPU intensive with it (for example a game server), it should be fine.

As far as I know, the server and desktop versions of Ubuntu are basically the same, except the server edition doesn't come with anything above (and including) X.

[ghosstt]

Can you guys recommend me a good hard drive for this? Like I said before, It doesn't have to be the fastest in the world, but I guess it'd be nice. (I'm looking for <=50-60)