LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Moderators feel free to move this tread to where it's most appropiate...

In my desire to advace my knowledge of computers i have bought several servers and now the owner of a domain name. www.thetazzzzman.com Right now it is being parked on godaddys web servers. (less than $80.00 for a 10 year lease on the domain) What i'd like to know / learn is setting up the servers to act as the website (among other things). Keep in mind that i have never setup a server(s) or a website. so all of this is new to me.

Connection to the interweb is a adsl 6mb down / 768k up service provided by at&t.

Any input welcomed.

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:05 pm Post subject:

Ohhh me first....OK I don´t count myself as an expert but I think maybe I can give you some pointers. MOST IMPORTANT!
1. DON´T GET PAWNED. Running your own servers can make you more open to hackers. So make sure you segment your connection from your PC, and only use that web server to host. Don´t stick all your important data on the webserver.(not to sound too fatalistic) LBD gets attacked all the time ..lets carry on.

2. With most ISP´s they will assign you a dynamic IP address, but in most cases you can get a static iP by paying more
4. Configure your router to forward through port 80. Sometimes the ISP will block this port you may have to use a different one.

5. Then you need to decide which type of platform your going to be running. APACHE, IIS are the most common. Apache more so I think. There is a ton of info out there. Without going into which is better etc. APACHE runs on Windows and Linux so go with whatever rocks your boat.

6. BROADBAND . Ok, lets say that your webpage is the next big thing...but if you can a high rate of traffic. Take into account
how long does it take to load your home page? Add up the size of your home page (in bytes), the sizes of all of the images on that page, and the size of any Flash movies (.swf files) or CSS style sheets (.css files) referenced by that page. Now multiply by 8 and you'll know how many bits make up your home page. Divide that by your upload speed and you'll have a rough idea how long it takes to load your home page under ideal conditions. There will also be latency delays slowing things down, and multiple users will of course slow things down and make it take longer. There is no fixed limit on the number of users who can access your home-based website at the same time - things just slow down.
capiche? and if you do host then next best porn site ever...I want free membership for life!!!

the taz man wrote:
Moderators feel free to move this tread to where it's most appropiate...

In my desire to advace my knowledge of computers i have bought several servers and now the owner of a domain name. www.thetazzzzman.com Right now it is being parked on godaddys web servers. (less than $80.00 for a 10 year lease on the domain) What i'd like to know / learn is setting up the servers to act as the website (among other things). Keep in mind that i have never setup a server(s) or a website. so all of this is new to me.

Connection to the interweb is a adsl 6mb down / 768k up service provided by at&t.

Any input welcomed.

If your servers have enough power, put VMWare ESX on them and segment up your server into different areas.

Here's a guide I used when setting up my web server: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-centos-5.2

I am using CPanel though and that actually takes care of allot of the configuration (Can be had for $15 a month).

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:54 pm Post subject:

wow... where to begin.

That's a pretty broad question for a very involved topic.

Read up on DNS. I heavily recommend O'Reilly "DNS and Bind."

If you plan on doing an e-mail server, O'Reilly "Managing IMAP" and "sendmail," are essentials. Even if you're not using either, the concepts are universal, the material is thorough, and the reading is not so sterile it's boring.

Harden the OS as well as the webserver platform (IIS/APACHE) before you even plug the server into the DMZ side of things.

Getting a static IP or 6 will make life much, much easier. Don't even consider running a production e-mail server without. Dynamic IP's reside in dynamic IP blocks, which are known, and commonly found on RBL's. footnote: most ISP's require a business class account with static to even allow traffic over 25 for any significant length of time, if at all.

Start small and tinker away. I know I've said it many times, but running my own hosting business out of my basement for several years was some of the most fun, priceless education, sleepless nights and agonizing days I've ever had.

It also taught me to appreciate the concept of dedicated servers.

There really is so, so much to that I could get into.

Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 1:21 am Post subject:

wrathiron wrote:
5. Then you need to decide which type of platform your going to be running. APACHE, IIS are the most common. Apache more so I think. There is a ton of info out there. Without going into which is better etc. APACHE runs on Windows and Linux so go with whatever rocks your boat.

Apache runs more of the Internet than any other web-server software. (And pretty much always has done.) http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2010/04/15/april_2010_web_server_survey.html

I'm no web-dev, but I've set up some Apache servers at home and at work for some simple things like Trac/Subversion/Wiki/etc. The configuration file will be a bit daunting when you first see it, but it's easy enough to get a handle on.

Never used IIS, so I can't comment on that.

Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 6:47 am Post subject:

ahem
http://tinyurl.com/ylcsr7t

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9381 Location: MN

wrathiron wrote:
Ohhh me first....OK I don´t count myself as an expert but I think maybe I can give you some pointers. MOST IMPORTANT!
1. DON´T GET PAWNED. Running your own servers can make you more open to hackers. So make sure you segment your connection from your PC, and only use that web server to host. Don´t stick all your important data on the webserver.(not to sound too fatalistic) LBD gets attacked all the time ..lets carry on.

2. With most ISP´s they will assign you a dynamic IP address, but in most cases you can get a static iP by paying more
4. Configure your router to forward through port 80. Sometimes the ISP will block this port you may have to use a different one.

5. Then you need to decide which type of platform your going to be running. APACHE, IIS are the most common. Apache more so I think. There is a ton of info out there. Without going into which is better etc. APACHE runs on Windows and Linux so go with whatever rocks your boat.

6. BROADBAND . Ok, lets say that your webpage is the next big thing...but if you can a high rate of traffic. Take into account
how long does it take to load your home page? Add up the size of your home page (in bytes), the sizes of all of the images on that page, and the size of any Flash movies (.swf files) or CSS style sheets (.css files) referenced by that page. Now multiply by 8 and you'll know how many bits make up your home page. Divide that by your upload speed and you'll have a rough idea how long it takes to load your home page under ideal conditions. There will also be latency delays slowing things down, and multiple users will of course slow things down and make it take longer. There is no fixed limit on the number of users who can access your home-based website at the same time - things just slow down.
capiche? and if you do host then next best porn site ever...I want free membership for life!!!

What happened to #3?

taz, start simple, toss up a web server open port 80... Put up some "hello world" HTML... Then work your way into server side processing scripts (if your into that sort of thing) some php installs... and go from there... depending on your OS/distro, it is as simple as "apt-get install apache php;apt-get moo" and opening port 80 on your firewall/router... (don't open the port until you are sure of everything.)