Setting up HTTP server
 

I just installed redhat 9 on my machine and would like to use it as a webserver and also ftp to get my work from school to my home computer. This is my first time with linux so I don't know what to do. I've looked around redhat some, but this is very confusing to me. Is there a site I could read on how to set up my http server? I am very lost. Thanks.

For setting up a webserver I would look at:
http://lamps.efactory.de/e-lamps-2-0.shtml

For ftp I would reccomend vsftpd but if at all possible just forget ftp and stick to scp as it is much more secure.

Sorry for being ignorant but what is scp and will it be as easy as drag and drop once I get it set up?

Thanks for the site.

scp stands for "Secure CoPy" and you can get graphical clients to connect with, you can even use WinSCP in windows. If you already have openssh running then scp should already work unless you have disabled it in your config file.

I read through and was following but I think I installed apache with redhat right? I don't know anything about the file system and I can't find the apache files. Where would they be?

You should have /var/www (place for your files). As root try to run
service httpd start
It should start Apache. If it doesn't you may not have it installed (but it's not a big problem, you need to install it from the cds).

Thanks. I found the /vars/www files. I was logged on as root and selected run program and typed in "service httpd start" but nothing happened. The dialog closed. I can get to apache config from under server settings. Am I doing something wrong?

First check if apache is running -- try typing 'ps auxw | grep httpd' and see if there are any results. You can also try running 'netstat -tan | grep :80' to see if anything is listening on port 80 the default http port). You can also do 'rpm -q apache' to see if you have Apache installed (it should be). The Apache configuration files and binaries are often located in /usr/local/apache or /usr/local/apache2 -- I *think* this is where RH 9 has them, but I generally compile Apache from scratch so I'm not totally sure. Setting up Apache can be a little intimidating at first, but once you have the hang of it, it gets to be pretty easy.

I'm not sure what happened when you tried 'service httpd start' -- Apache's logs tend to be in the /var/log/httpd directory. Check the error_log to see if something went wrong on server startup. There is a bin directory under the Apache directory with a program called apachectl (use find if you can't find it any other way) and you can try typing apachectl start and see if it provides any usefull output.

Also, if you are going to run network services, you'll need to be carefull keep up with security patches to make sure your machine isn't broken into.

Alright, it said apache was not installed. I guess I'll have to install it. Thanks guys.