Hello,

I am thinking about purchasing a server and running a web server from my home. I want to host my websites (I have about 15 low traffic, non-critical sites).

I understand that my biggest obstacle is getting up to speed with securing the system. I'll be hosing about 10 websites--all relatively low traffic and not critical should I make a mistake. Mostly websites for very small businesses, friend, family, and my blog.

I have used Ubuntu, Fedora, and Red Hat as a local LAMP server for development--I've never setup a live server. I have a dedicated IP and am familiar with basic configuration of Apache, PHP, MySQL, and some apache modules.

Can anybody recommend books, websites, and articles that I might want to read regarding security and setting up a web server? I would also appreciate any input as to how much attention might be required to administer the system (updates and maintenance). And finally, if anyone has some suggestions (I know they are just opinions) on which distro they prefer for web hosting and why, I would appreciate that as well.

Cheers.

I recommend Apache Security by Ivan Ristic. I am currently reading it - comprehensive, eye-opening book. Don't put your server on the 'net until you understand the concepts within.

Depends on the type of content, level of traffic, and work done at the outset to secure it.

You want something stable: obsessively tested, no major version updates, no bleeding edge. I would choose -

• RHEL (for support); or
• CentOS; or
• Debian

(Actually, I would choose FreeBSD, but I was assuming you want to stick with Linux.)