thomjw
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I want to build Web Server-What do I need?
Hi all,
I want to build my first home server. I want it to be able to be accessed from anyone on the web that has the address. I want it to host a small web page of mine, and be a ftp server (with password). I have 3 pc's and 2 macs at home. I want it accessable to all for networking storage stuff, and remote app loading, and for backing up from all the machines at home. My main question is, if I want to build a server box and use Mac OS X server software, how would I build a server box? And if I were to use Win 2000 server software, can I just use an old 800mg processor pc as the server box? If I use the win2000 server software will it work with the macs? If I use the Mac X server software will it work with the windows pc's? Isn't there a problem with trying to build a machine that you can put Mac software on? I heard you can't like you can just build a pc box? Oh, and last question, how do I register a domain name? I just want a web address name that people can type in and go directly to my web site that I want to set up on my own little server at home. I don't want to pay some large company to do what I should be able to do, right? Who can a small future businessman like me talk to to get a specific .com name put on the web? so it goes to my own server and web site? I know, lots of questions, but hopefully there are lots of answers too!!
thanks anyone,
Tom W.
I want to build my first home server. I want it to be able to be accessed from anyone on the web that has the address. I want it to host a small web page of mine, and be a ftp server (with password). I have 3 pc's and 2 macs at home. I want it accessable to all for networking storage stuff, and remote app loading, and for backing up from all the machines at home. My main question is, if I want to build a server box and use Mac OS X server software, how would I build a server box? And if I were to use Win 2000 server software, can I just use an old 800mg processor pc as the server box? If I use the win2000 server software will it work with the macs? If I use the Mac X server software will it work with the windows pc's? Isn't there a problem with trying to build a machine that you can put Mac software on? I heard you can't like you can just build a pc box? Oh, and last question, how do I register a domain name? I just want a web address name that people can type in and go directly to my web site that I want to set up on my own little server at home. I don't want to pay some large company to do what I should be able to do, right? Who can a small future businessman like me talk to to get a specific .com name put on the web? so it goes to my own server and web site? I know, lots of questions, but hopefully there are lots of answers too!!
thanks anyone,
Tom W.
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Hi thomjw :-),
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Since this question is starting to get old could you please give us an update on the status of this question?
See: https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi51 Thank you, turn123's friendly update request script.
Offtopic comments about this script to https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21188389/Unanswered-question-list-and-ping-feedback-and-bugs.html please :-).
ASKER
Thanks acmp! I've been reading alot and you steered me in the right direction. Hopefully I will have my site up soon.
Glad to help, good luck with the site
acmp<><
acmp<><
You can't just build a custom Mac server. You have some control in the sense of putting disks in the system and upgrading RAM, but CPU and some other features are not nearly as easily upgraded.
MacOS X can be setup to serve files to PCs. It can also have FTP and Web servers. It would be better if you have the full server version of MacOS, but if not, you should be able to do it without (I can't help much with this method - I just know these details from years of socialization with Mac geeks).
Windows Server - if you have a copy - Can also serve Macs. Macs running OS X can connect via SMB protocols (built in) and thus file sharing is easy. Macs using pre OS X systems would require either installing Dave (PC file sharing software) or some similar software OR you can install Services for Macintosh on the Windows 2000 server. This works fine too.
Windows Server includes Internet Information Server (allowing Web services and FTP services, among others). In addition there are several free web and ftp servers. Among the most popular Web servers is Apache - there are versions for virtually any operating system.
An 800 MHz CPU is fine for a server of the type you describe (for Windows Server). I have my router, web server, and file server (as well as Domain Controller) currently running a 433 MHz system with 384 MB RAM with no problems.
Running your own .com (etc) website is a little more complex. Typically you need someone to host DNS for you. Many "cheap" registrars will do this for you - then you just have to configure it through a web page to tell it where your server is (tell the DNS setup your home system's IP and what name you want to use with - typically, you'd want "WWW").
Personally, I've used www.active-domain.com for the past 1.5 years whenever I register a web site - they host DNS for free, so once you buy the name ($10 or so from them), that's it. No more fees until the domain needs to be renewed.
Let me know if you need more details.