Private Unix server: What do I need?

[Shantra]

As my cable provider is going to set up the out speed to 256kb (768kb down)I'm going to set up my own server. The problem is that I dont know exactly what I need to do that.
Here is a list of stuff that I'm planning to get:

- Athlon 1,4 prosessor
- 512Mb DDR memory
- IBM Deskstar 40GB IDE 7200RPM
- 10/100 ethernet card
- Hub of some kind
++
Is this overkill?

I'm planning to install Unix, mySQL and PHP.
Is it a good choice to get Unix? I dont have any experience with it!!
Do I need anything more (like admin panels)?

Also I'm planning to use no-ip.com to do the dynamic IP stuff!!

[Bob]

The actual PC specs are overkill, the line is incredibly (!!!!!!!!) under powered though.

[Shantra]

I guess But I just pay $200 more for those specs!
I will use this server for a small site and my main thought is actually just to learn more about running a server. Just a small project I rent a server for my other sites!!

What about the software?

[WALoeIII]

That is TOTAL overkill on the hardware, I'm running a p3 866 w/ 256 ram on a DS-3 (webhost) and I can't utilize more than 5% of the cpu!

For your connection you'll never use more than 1%.

As for the software, I'd get Red Hat 7.2 from http://www.redhat.com/

You can look around and download it for free (legally, its open source) and it installs really easily and has everything you're looking for already included.

[Karl]

Wow, way way way overkill for a single site, look for a 2nd hand PII-450 or something on eBay, as long as it's got 64Mb+ RAM in it and at least 4Gb hard disk you'll do fine, you don't even need a monitor, keyboard or mouse once you've got it running as you can admin it remotely from your other PC (As you would with a server hosted elsewhere).

[Fuel Hosting]

Shantra,
Ya you may be going overboard a little. With Linux you can run old processors and with enough ram you can accomplish anything. I think that if you want to run it from your house you may want to think about the line. If it is 256 I would say thats pretty good enough for a smaller site but Ive never ran one from home before.

You may want to checkout www.redhat.com and get 7.2 - Its simple to install and you can use Webmin for your control panel. http://www.webmin.net/ --- I think Webmin may be a little buggy but its free. ;-)

Have fun.

[delemtri]

256K should be okay, the general rule of thumb from what I hear is that 1MB is 320GB of data transfer, so 256K would be 80GB. If your site gets too popular (is there such a thing?) you can always go the colocation route.

There are some nice free CPs out there that you might want to try out. Webmin is the first choice as Fuel says. Plesk is awesome but not necessary.

The specs are definitely overkill, actual web hosting companies often use servers with less power than that. Of course there's nothing wrong with it, naturally.

[Marshall]

- Athlon 1,4 prosessor
- 512Mb DDR memory
- IBM Deskstar 40GB IDE 7200RPM
- 10/100 ethernet card
- Hub of some kind
++
Is this overkill?

Sounds like a great desktop machine -- install a good sound card and use it for gaming. The hardware is wrong and the Internet connection isn't bulky enough for large-scale Web serving. Not to worry, though -- you'll max out the connection well before you max out the server hardware.

It will, however, probably work fine for your light to lighter-than-medium serving needs. Check the legality of what you're planning with your cable company -- hosting on a home cable account may be against the ToS.

- Marshall