Setting up a server at home query

Mossess

Here’s what I have at home, two spare old PCs ready to be rebuilt. A laptop running XP and a desktop running Windows 7.
An Eircom connection at 3MB.
A website domain ready to be pointed.
Standard eircom supplied Netopia router.
No budget.

Here’s what I want:
To host my own website from my house.
To be able to browse my own PC’s from anywhere.
And did I mention I have No Budget.

So I’m thinking Linux of some sort. I know everything is out there for free, but have no idea where to go from here.

Any thoughts and suggestions more then welcome!!

Adam

you'll want apache server on your desktop, but first things first you need a static IP address.

for accessing your pc's away from home you can just download the free version of LogMeIn, it should suffice.

tricky D

You need a static IP which doesn't come with that package.

Running a server through that package is against their terms and conditions.

Even in the less than likely event that you know how to properly secure your server, it's hugely uneconomical, nevermind dangerous compared what any hosting provider provides.

Eircom probably has some sort of web space available for your use if you don't want to stump up €50/60 pa for a decent basic hosting package.

Mossess

I think I have the static IP sorted, going to use http://www.dyndns.org/ to do a reroute of sorts. I can log into the router at the moment. I’ll look up LogMeIn in a moment.

“Running a server through that package is against their terms and conditions.”
Your joking me. Well my contract is quiet an old one, I’ll have a scan through it, but I have a feeling I’ll be alright.

Oh one other thing, and this is important. Linux and all non Microsoft stuff. Kinda new to me. But, that’s all going to change. I’m going to imbrace the Tux side of life (and tech)
Apache server. Is that a server in its own right or do you install in onto of a server? (yes, not a clue)

Ghost Train

you should be able to get a free no-ip.com address to host from a changing ip address... i.e dynamic dns

xampp is an easy place to start for apache... ie webserver

for browsing files, logmein should be easy enough.

could also try setting up ssh and then use something like winscp to access the files.

apache gets installed on top of server/pc, just another program


for linux, webmin is very handy, http://www.webmin.com/

Mossess

Currently downloading XAMPP and OpenSuSe. Will see how they go..
Looked at logmein - and this is a really good tool but not quiet what I'm after. I'll see how to share out folders out through the router, if thats the right way.

Streaming to mobile devices may be on the cards also.
this weekend is going to be interesting...

wolfric

If you're setting up a server at home, be prepared to get a lot more interest in people hacking your server and the possibility that if they get in, the rest of your network is screwed. Even if you're fully patched, you can still get hit with a vulnerability that isn't known about.

In terms of bandwidth, you normally very small upload limit compared to download. This means if anyone is using your upload limit (to download from your server), It's going to cause issues for other people on your network as your responses to whatever your connecting to can't get out fast enough or get dropped.

Set up some Quality of Service to sort this out on your router. I would set up a vlan and if possible set up firewall rules that don't allow the server to connect to the rest of the network or to connect to the router on any of the ports used for maintenance (eg 80,22,23,443 etc)

I would suggest running a linux web server internally for a while and not have it accessible from the outside. Get used to it. Read up on it etc before you start using it exposed to the world. While linux is a lot easier to lock down and make secure, it's easy to mess up and open yourself up if you don't know what you're doing.

Distro, i'd run ubuntu server. Normally i'd recommend debian but there's a lot more articles and communities out there with ubuntu. Most problems have a separate blog post just to explain them.

For access use ssh. I'd have it listening on a high port. If people find it, they might get in, waste your bandwidth trying or waste it trying to do more intensive scans to find what else you've got running. Remember to disable root login (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/security-tip-disable-root-ssh-login-on-linux/) and make your passwords long and complicated.

Keep your system patched. If you're going to just install all updates anyway, have a look at this article https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutomaticSecurityUpdates

Ghost Train

if you install opensuse, should be easy just to install webmin which includes apache and makes the system very user friendly to manage

if you want security, only open port 22 and do everything through ssh

you create a ssh session to the linux server (eg. using putty) and then forward any ports you need using SSH tunneling