[Techtalk] Servers 101

[Billie Walsh]

Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
> Billie Walsh wrote:
>> My better half just turned to me and asked if I thought we had a 
>> computer suitable for running as a server on our home network. With 
>> all the stuff we have around here I'm pretty sure we do but we know 
>> absolutely nothing about servers. It would have to be able to work on 
>> a mixed network [ Linux and Windows ].
>>
>> Can someone point me to someplace that has "Servers For Dummies 101"?
>>
>> I don't know if we will actually get something going but a little 
>> learning is never a bad thing.
>>
>>   
> Suggestion: any linux admin book? Perhaps Carla's cookbook? One 
> problem is there are so many different servers.. What are you thinking 
> of doing? That might result in some more directed suggestions.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rudy
>
Well, we have loads of old computers around here. Pretty much anything 
from  my old TI99-4A and CoCo II up to our main Intel dual core 
desktops. I'm kind of thinking maybe something in the 1GHz range with 
possibly four hard drives, or fewer larger ones depending on what we 
have and can get [ fixed income ].  I have a PCI SCSI card down here in 
my drawer with it's cables so that's another possibility.

Probably use it for file storage/sharing [ be a good place to keep extra 
stuff for our EeePC's that we don't need to keep on the machine but want 
to have available ], in house mail [ don't know about that one cause we 
can actually talk to one another but might make a nice message system ]. 
I bought a nice USB Sony turntable to record my old LP's and burn onto 
CD's so it might be a good place to keep music that could be listened to 
on any PC in the house. At one time I had thought about setting up one 
to host my own webpages on but out in the boonies where we live we can't 
get a suitable connection.

I had never seriously looked into a server but my better half asked if 
it could be done and I said it was possible. That's about as far as the 
thought process has gone so far.

-- 
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.