OK, time to learn how to build a server.

E Frank Ball frankb at efball.com
Mon Mar 4 16:45:06 PST 2002


On Mon, Mar 04, 2002 at 03:16:59PM -0800, Doug Palmer wrote:
} I've been using Linux in various distros for a long time, but always as a
} workstation. Today I registered my first domain name and I want to set up
} http and mail services. Which book do I start with?

I don't know about any books, but for mail I recommend postfix
(www.postfix.org), for http I recommend thttpd (www.acme.com).

postfix is fast, easy, and secure.  qmail is secure, and easy if you
have debian and bitch if you are using some other linux.  sendmail is
insane.  I don't know much about exim.

thttpd is fast, small, easy, and secure if setup correctly.  apache is
huge, slow, bloated, and complicated.  The config file for apache is
1000 lines long.  The config file for thttpd on my server is 6 lines,
and half of that is redundent (settings = compile time options).  apache
does have more features, but what types of things to you want to do on
your webserver?  Do you need ssl or stylesheets?  If so look at apache.
I also looked at several other "mini" webservers (webfs, dhttpd, etc),
but thttpd worked out best in the end for me.

I'm using both postfix and thttpd if you run in to trouble and have
questions.  I have somebody else doing my DNS service for my domain
names (I don't trust bind), and I'm doing name based virtual hosting on
the web server.  I'm also running mailing lists using minimalist, but
there might be better choices for mailing list software.  Minimalist is
as the name describes:  simple and small, but not very full featured.

What linux distro will you be using?  Are you setting this up on a ADSL
line or what? I have my ADSL server and a server on the intranet at work.

You can buy books on apache and sendmail, but postfix and thttpd are too
simple to need a book.

-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at efball.com



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