Newbie server related question. Need advice.
 

I purchased a dell poweredge 2400 a few months ago. I had origionally planned on installing asterisk at home for voip. I decided against switching to voip.

I now have a server that I don't really have plans for.

It is a dell poweredge 2400.
Dual P3 500mhz
1gb ram
4 x 9GB in (Raid 0, 1 or 5) now in 0.


I just got broadband via FIOS through Verizon.
I am starting a small home LAN.

I have 6 pcs. 5 running linux and 1 running xp pro(for my wife-she telecommutes via it). ( all connected via wired dlink router running dhcp)

My ISP will not allow me to run my own web server.

I would like to make the most of this server.

What could I use it for?


I was thinking file server. For the distro I was thinking Centos.
I would like to run Squid.

I know this is a dumb question, but I am a desktop user and I can't seem to figure out networking/servers and how everything fits together.

I am just looking for some ideas. Just wondering if anyone had a similar setup, and what they are doing with it.

Regards,
Blair

Lots of things, but you'll probably have to do some reading! :) I use mine as a test web server (i.e. I use it only on the LAN and then upload my web pages to the allotted space Charter gives me), a internal FTP server, a game server (I like Battle for Wesnoth), a file server, a print server, etc. If you wanted to learn things, you could just fiddle with it and try to make it a router/gateway/firewall too.

I've heard of people using them as MP3 players into their stereo, recording TV shows, etc. And I think a guy at work uses his to control appliances and lighting in the house (some 3rd party hardware is probably required) so he can wake up to a hot pot of coffee in the morning... So really, just about anything you can think of.

CentOS is a great distro for just about any kind of server. if you are wanting to run it as a file server then you will need to configure NFS, and would not be a bad idea to learn about automount. i am glad one of the guys in my LUG pointed that out to me. wow what a difference in stability and performance now that im using automount.

if you want to serve files your wife can get to with her XP box, then you will also need to set up and configure samba.

I appreciate the feedback.

I was tempted to just sell it back on Ebay, but I put too much cash in it and would never recoop.
Plus its a chance to learn a thing or two about servers.

I have a decent standalone firewall.(cisco pix 501)
My cheap dlink routers do all the dhcp.

I would like to use a proxy to make surfing safer and faster. Thats why I was looking at Squid.

I have some x-10 devices, but I was going to run misterhouse on a different pc.

I will be purchasing some ccd cams for home security. I thought about running them to the server, but I am not sure if the specs on the servers would support steaming video at a reasonable rate. I was looking at Motion for linux for the cams.

The only game I play is ut2004 ( I play way too much). I just loaded it on my SUSE 64 and it is sik.
I don't really need a game server. I would host but the ISP wouldn't let me.

I was planning on running Samba to get to some of the files on the XPlode machine.


I am looking for somemore ideas.
If there is a good website wiki or such please point me in the right direction.


Regards,
Blair

Couldn't you just forward port 80 to your web server anyways? Or do they straight block that incoming port? I'm wondering if "no web servers" means that they block port 80, or they don't give you a second IP.

"No web servers" means that they either block port 80 or they terminate your service if they find you using it (either through port scans or heavy traffic to your IP).

I just know that I've heard ISPs say you can't have web servers but they don't do much to prevent it.

I've seen both. One friend was using his web server to host streaming video and was sucking up bandwidth and after a few days got a shock when he couldn't connect to the internet anymore. He got a letter saying his service had been terminated for web hosting.

Another friend had a local service, I can't remember the name, and port 80 was blocked by default.

Personally, I've occasionally used a personal ftp server (against my ISP's service contract) to back up my brother's machine when he had to do a reformat of his xp box (he lives across town), but I always take it down in between uses. So far no problem...

So I guess my point is that you probably won't catch any attention as long as you're not eating up bandwidth. Or you could just pay for a second IP that they'll allow you to host a server on, don't know how much that costs...

This is my only means of high speed access. If I get booted from them its back to dial up. ( so no web servers is fine for me.)

They give me the standard 10mb on their servers for a small personal website.

I have Centos 4.X on the poweredge now.

I just don't know enough about servers. (I need to read, but with two kids that time is very limited)

I have a month or two to get everything setup the way I like.
I have it thrown together now, because my home office is moving to the basement in a few months.

I figured enough people here are running their own home servers. I was just looking for something productive to do with an outdated server.

Regards,
Blair