Need help with first Linux Server

[k1ng0fb0r3d0m]

Hello everybody,

I'm new to these forums and am hoping that somebody here can help me out.

I've been looking around the web for a while now, trying to do some research for a project I plan to begin here in a couple months. Sadly, I've been unable to find very much useful information. Probably doesn't help that for a while I was thinking about using Windows Home Server due to it's "ease of use." It doesn't look like it will support everything I need, such as a Mac, so I have since turned away from it.

Moving on to the questions at hand...

I will be buying the wife a new computer once Apple decides to release their new OS this summer to replace her current budget Toshiba. Since I won't be needing a third laptop, plus the two desktops in the house, I've been considering turning the laptop into a home server.

I just don't how much of what I want I can make it do.

So, without further ado, here are my current plans/hopes:

In Network
- Wired
-- XBox 360 (x2)
-- Sony Playstation 3
-- Desktop (x1)
-- Blue-ray player
-- TV*
- Wireless (Brackets [] indicates the protocol. "[n]" refers to 802.11n, etc.)
-- [n]HP Laptop
-- [n]MacBook
-- [n]Desktop
-- [g]Nintendo WII
-- [g]iPad, iPod Touch, Mobile Phones when needed
-- [n,g]Guest computers

Configuration (Network)
- Laptop hardwired into router
- 1TB WD MyBook World Edition into either server or router
- 1TB Cavalry HD into either MyBook or Computer (USB only)
- Two wireless routers, one as access point for second XBox 360
- One switch for 360, PS3, Surround Sound, TV* plugged into router

Wishlist
- Stream videos and music to...
-- TV*
-- XBox 360(x2)
-- PS3
- File server
-- Can be accomplished with just the WD MyBook, still undecided about this one
- Local Game Server*
- Email Server
-- Saw somewhere that I can have the server download all emails and simply access them from the other devices.
- Web Server
-- For small bandwidth operations (i.e. TeamSpeak)
-- Low usage blog, etc. depending on ISP ToS.*

*Possible idea, undecided.

So far, the only helpful thing I have found is PS3 Media Server and of course the various distributions of Linux. Unfortunately, I haven't tracked or fiddled with Linux since I used Mandrayke 9.2 (I think) years ago. I'm not afraid to learn, I just need to get pointed in the direction to learn.

If anybody has any information regarding software or equipment that would prove useful, whether it be that I can or can't do what I want, or even a link to information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

NOTE: I apologize if this is in the wrong forum and also for the link of the post.

[ramin.honary]

Well, I had the same idea as you, but I haven't got around to actually doing it yet. I have an old Apple "PowerBook", the very last high-end laptop Apple released with a PowerPC processor before they switched to Intel and started calling it "MacBook". If you install an ordinary Linux server, closing the lid will not trigger its suspend mode, so you can keep the server closed up and running on a bookshelf.

My plan is to use my ordinary home router to manage the network, and work as a firewall from the outside world to the network in my apartment. I will set the laptop to be a web server (Apache 2.2) and BitTorrent seeder, by setting the home router's to use DHCP on addresses 192.168.0.(100-150), and set my laptop to a static IP at 192.168.0.3, with "de-militerized zone" (DMZ) to point to the laptop's static IP address, then unblock port 22 (ssh), 80 (http), and 993 (imap over SSL) such that all traffic to those ports the are forwarded to the DMZ (the Linux server).

Once you have a web server (like Apache 2.2) all setup you can install MySQL and PHP, which are necessary to run MediaWiki, or Drupal, or whatever software you want to serve your blog and other web content. There are all kinds of open source servers that run on top of Apache 2.2, its just a matter of installing their Linux packages.

Streaming music and video can be done with VLC, so I guess you just need to create a web page that presents streaming content from VLC, and get your PS3 and XBox to access that web page to view the streaming content, and controlling the player through the web interface. Apparently VLC already has a web interface which runs by default on port 8080, so it does not interfere with Apache on port 80, and it is not accessible from outside the firewall (only ports 22, 80, amd 993 are forwarded). You can control the VLC daemon to stream content to web pages that your PS3 and XBox can view with their respective web browsers.

An e-mail server would be similar. Just set my home router to redirect all traffic coming in on port 993 (IMAP over SSL) to be forwarded to the Linux laptop server, and setup a simple IMAP server on the laptop.

If I were to run a file server, I would just use SFTP, because it works over SSH. Since I already forward incoming traffic on port 22 to my Linux server, an SFTP server will work without any further modification to the network. Just install the SSH and SFTP server packages for the Linux distribution.

A game server is a much more complicated situation. As far as I know, every game has its own unique server software. Good luck trying to find a an open source game that runs on either the XBox or the PS3, and good luck again finding an open source version of the server that can host the open source game you want to play. And I have never thought BZFlag was really that great.

[dE_logics]

I would suggest a simple file server, next you need to decide the protocols, what protocol does all the equipment support -

NFS? (very much recommended)?
SMB/CIFS? (Not recommended, since it's a Microsoft thing, it's super slow)
FTP (does xbox, PS3 support FTP?)
HTTP -- I don't think you wont be able to 'mount' them... so no good.

[k1ng0fb0r3d0m]

Sorry for the late response, sadly I only get internet access on the weekends right now.

I will look into the information you provided me more this weekend and hopefully have a lot fewer questions.

The game server isn't for the PS3 or XBox, only computer. Pretty much just to run a server for online games that either aren't supported by the manufacturer anymore or for when I just feel like messing around without actually being online. Test grounds sort of I suppose. Wouldn't have to run constantly either. I did it once on a Win7 machine during my deployment, not sure if it can be hosted on a Linux machine though. Need to look into that further.

Again, thanks for the information. I've got pointed in a direction now hopefully I can figure most of it out on my own.