Help! I Need to Build A Server!

[Jagger]

I have a business with about 10 employees (all with computers running WinXP with MS Office). I need to add a central server (currently none in place). My goals for the server are as follows:

1) Central access point for the web (ergo, have a central firewall)
2) Document storage
3) Possible IMAP email (maybe in a few months)
4) Possible web hosting of our webpage (maybe never)

I don't see us having more than 20 computers connected to the server (otherwise, I'll upgrade if we grow that much (G*d willing)).

Anyone have experience with building these? What about operating systems, etc.? Thanks in advance.

 

[bydesign]

Even in a small business you are better off in the long run purchasing a pre-built unit with a maintenance contract unless down time isn't an issue for you.

 

[4745454b]

I don't have it all, but I'll give you what I know.

1) Central access point for the web (ergo, have a central firewall)

From what I understand, this is fairly easy with Linux. What you need is a motherboard with dual NICs, or a motherboard with a NIC and another PCI NIC. I don't know if there are any windows based firewalls, but there are plenty for Linux. To set it up, plug your server into your DSL/Cable/other(?) modem. Setup the software, and use the second network port to connect to a 10/20 port switch.

2) Document storage

Again, this is very easy. If you use windows, you simply share the drive/folder. If you pick linux, setup the Samba server.

3) Possible IMAP email (maybe in a few months)

Hmmm, I must have had a bigger day then I thought, I'm drawing a blank...

4) Possible web hosting of our webpage (maybe never)

Again, I remember doing this in college when we setup our Linux server. The distro we used required (it might have been the instructor.) us to setup a webpage so that when we accessed the server on port 80, we got the webpage we created. Hosting and creating the webpage should be easy using linux. (what I mean by easy is that its all right there, ready to go. If you pick windows, you might need to download some other programs.)

Building a server isn't much different from building a "normal" machine. If you need five nine uptime, then you need two servers. (so when one fails, the other switches over) You can also implement RAID1, and ECC ram, but I doubt your looking for this kind of stuff yet. If you decide to build it yourself, remember to stick to name brand stuff. If you have any doubts about its quality, google/yahoo it for reviews. You want a Seasonic/PCP&C psu, Asus/Abit motherboard, Crucial/Corsair ram, Seagate or WD harddrives. (be careful with WD, not all of their harddrive have 5yr warranties.)

 

[Slappy_Slime]

BSD is very reliable but harder to set up. MS is easier but more expensive! Monowall is great for a firewall but you will need a seperate computer for that, but it will run on a system as low as a P-100 but for 20 systems a P-150 will do great. As for a server a 1 gig will do fine w/ 1gig mem, because you are not running graphics, Just storing and retrieving data. and of course you will need a switch. But if you ever run an internet server, just have good band width.(upload). From articales that i have read in the past, it is better to have the server and firewall seperate, so the server can be a server and let the dedicated firewall be a firewall, so you really can lock it down tight! I know this is not detailed, but i was trying to say this in a nut shell. But for me im running a P-100 w/48 meg of mem for monowall and it runs great, im using a amd 450 w/384 meg mem running pc-bsd for my personnal web server(apache). and a wireless router acting as a switch for the rest of my systems. and no problems, as in hack attacks, or lagging in games, or having to reboot, up times are great, until a power failure . this works for me, but it may not be what you are looking for, but some one else in this forum will have better advice than I. but read up on monowall, and pc-bsd, they are both easy to use. WARNING: if you use MS products and you try unix/bsd/linux, it is a learning curve! so take it slowly and dont get frustrated. :lol: