Need help setting up a home server.

[Agrooreo]

Tried this thread over in computer help but all I was really told was to tryout WHS. So Im looking for some other bits of advise here. Please read the original post below.... Again any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi guys, topic pretty much says it all. I'm interested in setting up a server out of some parts I have laying around. I currently have a 1.2 ghz cpu, matching motherboard with onboard vid and sound, etc, and about 256 mg ram (i think will have to check on that, either way im pretty sure the ram is either pc100 or pc133 so upgrading to more shouldn't be hard.) and a 320 gb eide hdd sitting in a mid atx case.

Now what i want the server to be able to do is stream media to 2 xboxs w/ xbmc, my xbox 360, my laptop, and my dell gx260. I would also like it to be able to download from the internet so i dont have to transfer a bunch of stuff. Secure remote access is also a must. Also would love it to be able to run without a monitor, keyboard, etc. Ftp is also a must. This is where I run into issues. I don't know much about the technical side of setting up a server since this will be my first time. I did however find this LINK to article on building a server using Xubuntu. Seems pretty straightforward and easy to follow if I put the time in. However since the article is a little over a yr and a half old I would like some other suggestions on what OS to use. Keep in mind I need something that is pretty much a step by step how to since I am new to servers, linux, and windows server operating systems.


Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help!

 

[xSauronx]

consider your distro: id start with a debian netinstall. its very basic and lightweight, and you can add what you need after that. itll be a good learning experience

no monitor? :: once initial installation is done, install SSH and a VNC server. lookup tunnelling VNC over SSH for bonus security and geek points SSH stands for secure shell and allows you to create an encrypted connection with shell access to a machine. look for a howto. it sounds complicated, but its easy to configure.

VNC will let you have a desktop environment available if you dont just want to use the command line. you need a VNC server on the server, and a vnc viewer from anywhere else.

streaming media? :: not sure exactly what to use for that, i dont know anything about xbmc, but linux has good SMB support via samba, and you can set up a VLC server for other media. look into both of those. samba will be important for any file sharing over a windows network.

any linux distro will have an FTP server available in the repository, whether or not theres a good graphical one i dont know, ive never played with setting up an FTP server.

Most howtos within the last couple of years should be fine. pick a subject (say SSH serveR) and google "SSH server setup $distro_version" and youll get exactly what you want. for ubuntu and its variants, ubuntu tutorials abound and kubuntu/xubuntu probably wont differ too much, especially if text configs are discussed.

pick a distro, like debian or ubuntu server, do an install and then start with a topic, and try to finish one thing at a time. SSH is easy to setup and get going, and once you learn how to set that up on your server, you can do *everything* else from the command line, even get a GUI installed and started to VNC into, so you can unplug the monitor right away

 

[Agrooreo]

Dang it. When I copied my thread I didn't notice the link to the article I wanted some advice on didn't work. Should be working fine now. ^^^ Thanks looks like Ive got some more reading to do