Right im a to Linux but im quite a fast learner and am getting the hang of things.

I want to set-up and admin my own web server (for personal web development projects and to host a few friends sites)

I'm going to be installing:

SuSE Linux 9.0
Apache
PHP
MySQL
An ftp server
AND telnet (or a secure alternative)

Why I need YOU!

As I said I am a fast learner and have been browsing round the net for days learning things.

But I can’t find any help on Start to Finish web server (I was told about www.howtowebserver.com but the site seems to be down)

What im looking for is someone who can:

a) Point me to a place that has all my needs on it
Or
b) Be a kind of mentor eg. Someone I can ask questions about security and user management.

WHY?

Once my server is up and running I hope to write a DETAILED but easy guide on building a web server from scratch.

I will obviously give credit to ANYONE who helps.

So again. PLEASE HELP!!

-=GEARFREAK=-

was there any reason you decided against a more suitable title such as "Need help setting up a full webserver"? Capital letters and exclamatino marks won't get you help faster.

sorry i didnt mean to get people to answer quicker! im just tired lol

*Gets a pen out and changes the subject name*

I recommend reading the docs at httpd.apache.org. Also, don't use telnet, use ssh which is the "secure alternative". SSH also allows you to do file copying securely (via scp and sftp).

thanks for the reply.

i know how to setup apache , php and MYSQL no problem.

The main question i have is.

How to i add and cofigure a user so that he / she is only allowed in there own home dir (when they connect via ftp) and stop them getting remote access(Telnet / ssh)

you can stop individual remote connections by personalising the /etc/security/access.conf file. should have enough detail inside is already to explain everything.

Thanks!

Any help on the adding users with only serton rights to folders?

chmod and chown will giver certain user/groups permissions/who owns what for teh folders and indivisual files ----(just be carful with thiese things, dont wont somone loging in and finding they can delet ur whole system now eh?)

In Mac, the CHMOD changes the permissions or CHOWN changes the owner/group of the file. The specific detailed changes to a users files/folders permissions are this: +w (can write) +r (can read) -you can make any file read only (important) and +x for executable. Obviously -(letter) to remove that permission. Almost forgot! NEVER be online as ROOT!

I dunno about MacOS, but in the linux world chmod changes the permissions and chown changes the owner/group of the file. Read the man page on both these commands.

There are two ways I have locked people out in the past.

First way was I took away read/write/execute lists for "others" on everything. I also changed the group association of everything in /bin, /usr, and /opt to localusers and make all the users that were allowed to run programs and browse system structure members of the localusers group. Users that weren't allowed weren't placed in that group.

I found that to be a pain because most programs when you use there install script set the permissions as root/root and mark binaries as executable for the world, so I had to change permissions constantly.

The second method, the method I employ now, is referred to as user jailing. I allow all my users ssh access to my machine. However, users that I want to keep out of places get chrooted to a directory on login. Inside there root directory they can browse the whole structure, and run the programs that exist there, but I have ultimate say over what goes in there. I only allow them the basic tools, don't allow them to install anything, and the only config. file they see in /etc is the passwd file with there password entry so they don't even know what other users are on the system or what software I am running. This takes some time to setup, but works quite well.