Hi all,

During Christmas break, I'm planning to set up an internet server (email, web, ssh, dhcp, dns, etc), mainly for fun and learning. What software would you recommend and why? What sites I could go to and get information on this? Etc.. Basically, I want to get as much information as possible on setting up a server. Thank you, Mathias

The why in your question is in many cases is answered in a personal taste rather the quality of the software itself.

anyways, to give you a quick start...


mailserver (smtp):
Qmail - very good quality software (standard highly secure).
Exim - simple setup type of mailserver yet powerful and flexibel.
Sendmail - The godfather of the mailservers! not so friendly setup but very very powerful and mega flexible.
Postfix - The "lightweight" sendmail! It's basicly a sort of fork of sendmail with many fixes and enhancements. Easy setup.

imap/pop servers:
Qmail - yes this is not only smtp.
courier imap - very good.
cyrus - Master of the fetch daemons
Qpopper - fast lightweight pop3 daemon.
and many many more.

SSHD
OpenSSH server (by OpenBSD)

HTTPD:
Apache - Very fast/flexible webserver (most used in the world!!)
Tomcat (standalone or via Apache) - Java Servlet webserver
Tux - Made by Redhat. Simple fast webserver.

DNS:
Bind - most used DNS server package.
PowerDNS - new youngster on the DNS server horizon. very fast and gaining much popularity.

DHCP:
DHCPD - ifaik there is no other daemon for this.

Databases:
MySQL server - most used SQL database engine.
PosgresSQL - another very good SQL database engine.
ORACLE - no need for comments on this beast.
loads more aviable.

FTP (if you want to):

VSFTPD - very good daemon.
ProFTPD - most used daemon out there.
WU-FTPD - old ftpd. Not so very secure according to many peeps.
and others...