Server complete solution

[Xannax]

I'm under XP, running a personnal server. I'm still experimenting, so I do not own a domain name yet.
Oh wait, let me introduce myself since this is my first post: I'm a young man that do drawing and CG for fun and I looked for a forum to share thoughts, find help and maybe give some, even if I'm a newbie. I don't speak a perfect english since I learnt it on the web, you'll have to excuse me for that. I can do: 2D, 3D, PHP, HTML, Flash, VB, Javascript, Uuuuh...and some other stuff.

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So, back to my subject:
As I said I have XP, and I want to set up a complete home server as a trial before I buy a new PC and set up a real home server.
I'm currently running Apache with PHP and MySQL. I've got a FTP server and a SMTP server. I'm running user databases to handle the users info.

When a new user registers, he can create his PHP account for my forums and stuff, but I've got to manually create a .htaccess file to protect his personnal folder, manually ceate an SMTP account for his mails, and manually create an FTP account.

My question is: Is there a complete server solution that would use a single users database for everything, smtp, pop, ftp, http, and maybe even more? Or a bundle of programs that I could set to use the same database? Or at least a way for the user to create all these accounts without me doing it manually?

Note: I'm looking forward to move on Linux, so free software that is cross-platform is preferred.


Thank you in advance for the help.

[PeOfEo]

Um, if you host it yourself you can do all of that.... Any server can support client side scripting graphics, html, flash, so on and so foruth, it only gets specific when you get into the languages, iis runs from windows and will support
asp asp.net php jsp cgi and more
That is what I use. Databases do not depends on the server, but if you use php you genrerally use myself, asp generally mssql. But asp and asp.net can also use myself, php can also use mssql or access. But those are just not the most common. But do not host your website from your home computer. Keep a server running to test your website, but do not expect to host yourself. The reason i say this is unless you have the upload speed of a t1 it can get laggy fast. Also that computer that is running the server must be left on 24/7 and it is basically tapped to where you cannot play games or do anything that eats up a lot of memory or cpu time. Get a cheap hosting package, it will run faster because most decent hosts are on a t3 or oc3 (spread out over a bunch of clients because these are not cheap connections), and if you pay for a host you do not have to worrie about security, also if you host it yourself you still have to pay the electric bill and hopefully pay for licenced software so it will not be much cheaper. The only way you can legally get around having to buy software is to get linux which is free. You can run apache and php from linux, but do not expect to game from that machine :p

[Xannax]

Thanks for the reply.
Oh no I don't expect to play. I'm just testing for the time being. As soon as I have a working server, I will buy a new PC to host it and use this one for my daily work. I plan to use linux and free software only.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Xannax
Thanks for the reply.
Oh no I don't expect to play. I'm just testing for the time being. As soon as I have a working server, I will buy a new PC to host it and use this one for my daily work. I plan to use linux and free software only. I do not think you misunderstood me, do not run a server and host your sites from it. Get a hosting package. Unless you have a t1 or higher it is going to be inefficient to run your own server, and if you are paying for a fractional t1 you will find that more expensive then a host. Trying to run a working site off of your box is not the best idea, unless you can get a box dedicated to it, and have a 200kbit upload +, and do not expect a lot of traffic. If you do not meat those requirements do not bother.

[Xannax]

Yeah I understand you perfectly, and I agree perfectly that is the best way to have a server, but still, I don't want to do that. I want my own server, which I have full control over, and I don't expect lot of traffic. I will be hosting only a community site on it, for me and my friends. At most crowded times, there should be no more than 20 people connected, and it's gonna be a dedicated PC with Linux & 2megs ADSL download 500 upload. It should be enough, shouldn't it?