Need help with dedicated server.

[farscapeone]

I'm tired of hosting each and every site I make separately. As you all probably know I'm (among other things ) a web designer and until know I hosted all the sites a make for my clients separately. I once had a deal with a local hosting company but after they accidentally deleted two of my sites I decided to move on.

I decided to get my own dedicated server and do all the work myself but I'm not a server administrator, I newer got the time to learn that, plus I'm not that good with Linux. On the other hand I'm a skilled programmer, a web designer, system and network administrator (Windows) and I even know how to develop and program a custom microprocessor. I just want to say that I'm not new to computer world so I know how things work, plus I'm learn fast.

So you're probably wondering what's this thread all about. OK I need somebody with experience in Linux Server administration to point me to some materials (e-books, tutorials, articles) that can help me setup my own Linux based dedicated server. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy my own server (hardware) or just get it from some hosting provider. I think that having a server requires a lot of work and skill so I'll probably find a good host to do that for me. What do you think?

Some basic questions that can help you understand what I need can be found below:

1. How can I manage multiple sites on one dedicated server?
2. How can I install cPanel or any other panel for each site separately?
3. How can I manage DNS, Mail and other servers?

I know those question are hard to answer, that's why I ask you to just point me to some literature (perhaps something you used) so I can start learning myself, and if you're really kind to share some knowledge here that would be really nice. I know that Internet is full of information about this but I'm also aware that trying to learn something as serious as this without a proper guideline is hard and almoust impossible to do in reasonable time.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jtwhite]

Well. I suggest you use CentOS as your operating system. I actually recommend ISPConfig over cPanel, and it's free!

You can manage every aspect of your Web sites within the control panel, e.g. make new customers, configure dns, etc.

A step by step tutorial can be found here: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-centos-5.2-ispconfig-3

Good luck! I can help you with basic/medium problems. I'm no expert but I do know a lot about server administration.

Shoot me a PM or something if you have trouble.

 

[farscapeone]

Thanks jtwhite I saw that many people use CentOS for this purpose and you confirmed it.

There's one thing though. I'm connected to the internet though a gateway and I'll soon setup the access point. Does that change anything?

 

[jtwhite]

Do you mean like a wireless/lan router? If so, you'll have to open a port through the router. (This is called port forwarding).

You can learn more here: http://portforward.com/

E.g. of ports that need to be forwarded: HTTP (port 80), FTP (port 21)... Just google around and you should be able to find the port numbers for each service.

Good luck!

 

[farscapeone]

OK I read about port forwarding and I have one question. I have one computer that's directly connected to the internet and another one that uses the first one as a gateway. Two computers are connected trough a simple LAN connection. Both have Apache installed. Now when I type the IP (static) address in my browser, normally, I get the index page of my first computer that's connected directly to the internet. My question is, how can I access the other computer directly from the Internet?