General Knowledge Required?

Question

Need to know what I need to learn to get myself on my feet for servers. I am wanting to use Linux on my server to be able to host:
websites/VoIP programs (ventrilo, teamspeak)/Game server (BF 2142)

I am asking for specific things I will need to know in order to get started, and I will go from there.

I don't really want to use a service, im more a person who throws himself into the thick of it and trys to figure it out. would just prefer to know of a good foundation to start on.

Answer 1

It's a lot easier and cheaper to use a hosting service for that. Also much faster connection. Try Godaddy.com
I have 100GB storage and 1,000 GB monthly traffic through them for $5.59/mth

Answer 2

You can take any old computer (even 500meg processor) and load linux. So I would say, get your hands on an old machine, load LAMP (linux,apache,mysql,php) use CentOS, Fedora Core 6, etc. and do a linux server load. Connect it up to your local network and learn all you want to know about linux servers. If you want the easy way to host add in a hosting control panel. (There are several open source ones)
like http://www.ispconfig.org/ ipsconfig..

Most linux servers do not use the GUI that you are used to they use command line inorder to conserve CPU and memory but learning that is not that difficult. Just do an internet search for "how to setup a linux web server' There are tons of free tutorials.
Like http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialWebSiteConfig.html
or http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/99/08/index3a.html
Nearly all of the os mentioned above will install apache sendmail and mysql as part of the server setup so it isn't that hard.
You can also visit http://hostlibrary.com/installing_apache_mysql_php_on_linux
for information


The best way to learn is simply run one. Once you get the hang of it added a real server into the mix you will know how.
A real server is nothing more than a beefed up computer optimized for use as a server. But the software is exactly the same!