Build your own Linux server

Want to give an old PC a new lease of life? Why not transform it into a Linux server for your home/small business network?

Linux continues to gain ground in the enterprise server space, with champions in IBM, Sun and HP.

Why build your own Linux server? It's a good question. The answer is simple: to save money. Instead of forking out for appliances, you can build one that does exactly what you want. For less than $1,200, you can build a very capable server with gobs of storage and enough processing horsepower to pull multiple duties serving up a printer queue, web pages, FTP, DHCP, and SAMBA, and more. And, if you've got some old parts to scavenge, and are working within a tight budget, you can still put together a solid server for under $600.

Remember, with Linux, there are never a license or upgrade fee required, and those old 486s and Pentiums make fast, inexpensive Linux terminals and servers. Contact us now to find out what we can do for you and your business.

For a free consultation, please call (65) 96646911.

If you are interested in know more about what Linux can offer, read more…

The Linux server runs useful services such as Squid, the Web caching service; FTP, so we could access files from elsewhere on the network; and of course SMB, the Samba server that shares files for Windows networks.

Web caching (Proxy Server)
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Web caching speeds up browsing for all users, and saves download volumes by storing frequently used objects so they can be delivered to users quickly from local storage.

Windows server (File Sharing)
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Known as Samba, the SMB service ships free with most Linux distributions. It's convenient for each user to have a private area and a public share for all. There are many powerful configurations can be done. For instance, you can restrict access to IP addresses in your local subnet and, better still, ensure that the shares for those in one department are completely invisible to those in another. Separating out the accounts workers' shares would be a typical example.

Firewall (IPChains)
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The built-in firewall, ipchains, is pretty good enough for security purposes. The ipchains tool tell the kernel what packets to filter by inserting and deleting rules from the Linux kernel's packet filtering section. The way it works is that packets fall through a list or chain of rules, each of which can affect its fate depending on what type of packet it is. A simple firewall will allow access to external Web sites (http), to email servers (smtp), and to domain name servers (DNS) and not much else.

Linux is ideal for the kinds of tasks we've described and has proved very stable.

L&C IT Consultants offers their extensive expertise and experience to support all aspects of Linux systems:

Apache Web servers, Web design and authoring.
Networking: hardware, cabling, routing, connection sharing, firewalls, traffic management.
E-mail servers: SMTP, sendmail, POP, IMAP, list servers.
FTP file servers.
Internet service provision, virtual hosting, Domain Name Service (DNS)
Linux-Microsoft LAN interfaces: Samba, telnet.
System administration: users, accounts, passwords, backups.
Security: audits, defense against hacker attacks, firewalls
Disaster recovery.
Choosing and working with Internet service providers.
Custom programming: C, perl, awk, kernel modifications, device drivers.
Legal services: analysis of defective products, prosecution of warranty issues, common carrier wrangling, expert witness opinions in federal and state courts.
On-call quick help and advice.

For a free consultation, please call (65) 96646911.