Well, I'm still pretty new to Linux ( have been tinkering and whatnot for about a year now) and I want to run a web server at my house. The primary use would be for storage of pictures with something to automatically update my site so that the family has ay easier time trading pictures. I would also like to run an Exchange-like system so that everyone can have access to each others calendars. In the future, I would also like to set it up as a mail server. So, what software would everyone suggest?

It would be best if I could remotely administer it since I'll be at school and the server will be at home.

Thanks,
Eamon

Every distrib can be a server with Linux. However, if you don't want to break your back with install and config probs, I recommend you take a look at CentOS, an emule of RedHat Enterprise Linux. With this distrib, you'll get all the stuff you need to install a standard webserver like Apache in a minute.

As Exchange-like server, I could suggest you OpenXchange, which has a free version of the famous Exchange server of Novell. It is easy to install and to use, and is quite compatible with a lot of mail client including Outlook...

Here we go:
http://www.centos.org
http://mirror.open-xchange.org/ox/EN/community/

Have fun!

Debian! By far the most stable distro. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but I started w/ it at age 15, so it's not too hard. Apt is the easiest way to update, and it has over 15,000 packages. One thing you may run into however is that on a home connection, you ip address most likely changes, thus, you won't be able to get a domain name. Check w/ you ISP about a static IP address before you try and set this up

i too like debian, but CentOS is nice. it is not an emulation of RHE, it is just a FREE Fork with all of the "RedHat" trade marks logos, etc. removed and replaced with the CentOS icons and what not.

as for the loss of a static IP, grab an old PII 200 range with 128-256M ram and 2 NICs and put up an IPCop box, then grab a dynamic DNS handler like tzo, or dyndns. tzo is not free, but dyndns is. IPCop will handle the client work for you as it is built into the system plus it is a very powerful firewall and if you want to run servers you will want a strong firewall to protect your systems.

how would that work? does dyndns allow you to choose your own domain name(i.e. one you've registered)? What about going over a monthly upload limit imposed by the ISP, is there anyway around that?

No matter which OS you eventually choose, I would recommend Abyss (from Aprelium.com) as a webserver. My own runs on my old Windows box, but there is a Linux version as well.

google for dyndns and read up on it there. you can pay to have it deal with a dynamic IP to your domain, or you can just get one of their FREE sub-domains. example:

yourfreedomain.dyndns.com

so your URL would be above and that will not cost you a dime. setup IPCop and away you go.

as for upload limited imposed by an ISP, you are on your own to monitor that as there really is nothing i know of to get around that.

Is there anyway to stop uploading once it hits a certain mark? Why would one choose dyndns over others(no-ip, etc.)? Does IPCop(IPCop is a distro right? not a set of software?) do NAT?

Personally, I prefer Zoneedit (www.zoneedit.com). It's free for the 5 first domains and you can add your own domain name.

I personally would use FreeBSD as a server

So many of these types of posts.

It's simple. Any distribution of linux can be used as a server. For a server, you need a running and stable kernel along with the necessary supporting applications.

Some newer distributiions make this easy, but also come with a lot of 'overhead' in the form of gui's and configuration tools, etc.

The best thing is to find a good well-supported distribution such as FC, Debian, Suse. Install it a and learn it. Read tutorials; there's tons. You must understand and be comfortable with the base system in order to run an efficient and 'clean' effective server.

Well, I'm also looking for a distro that will let me log in like a server version of windows would (I do realize that any version will suffice as a server, but I'm looking for something that I can use to run my web server at home as well as a local file server inside the school network that will act like a domain). Are there any free options or would I be stuck looking at an Enterprise edition for this functionality? Thanks.

Eamon

again all linux can do that.

As we said, the distro is not very important since unlike Microsoft, Linux is Linux. However, it's far more easy to choose a distro that has a good package manager otherwise, you will have to compile every software you install.

RPM or DEBIAN based distro like CentOS or Gentoo are good ones for a non-initiate. They both have a graphical interface, a good package manager and graphical administrations tools, so you will just have to select the softwares you wish to install and configure them with GUI or some conf file manipulations...

Briefly, the distro choice is not as important as the knowledge of the softwares you will have to manage. Take a look at http://www.apache.org and http://www.samba.org the two most important pieces of your server....

Cheers!

I just want to say that gentoo is not a debian based distro, it uses portage for package management. I do recommend installing gentoo since the install process would be a great teaching tool to the basics of linux, plus it has some of the best docs/forums to get help from.