LAN_a_sys_linux_box_server_setup_how_?

[hbmarar]

hi to all,

First of all my english is not that good.so plz do bear with me.

I want to setup a linux box in a LAN that should be able to act in following roles:

Priority Role: Web server for a web application

Linux web server ( for LAMP),
MySQL Web server
File server, Print Server
Mail Server.
About the hardware details :

PIII 850 Mhz, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB HArd Disk, Mercury Motherboard.
2 ethernet Cards
OPerating sytems ( presently installed)

Windows 98 , Fedora Core 2 ( Dual Boot)
Internet connection:

Has Broadband connection and Public IP address.

Atleast,

it would be great if any one could share with me how to configure this box for recognizing the LAN as well as internet configuration.

Mapping external IP address to internal IP address.

Also, related to ethernet cards , one is right now plugged to LAN, need the other be also having a LAN plugin.(plz bear with me ,....I am a new bie to this)
I had got a few links and reply but I am still taking baby steps so , by that time i complete reading , someone in this forum would do sit with me for helping me out, (I wish so).

Thanking you in advance , I remain
Harish Balakrishnan Marar

[hbmarar]

hi,

When I posted it I really expected reply but I expected a person with whom I can query the doubts at different stages and before starting get some idea like what all things i should be taking care of.

I am really confused at these things:

Though I have two ethernet cards : only one is having a lan connection.Lan I menat because here the broadband internet is through Lan and gateway is in the node of network tree.

It would be gr8 if anyone could just help me with this:

Can this system be made a standalone server for / providing clients through internet rather than network.I believe , it could be and It also comes to my mind that internet is through LAN.

So, is this really going to be usefully made to atleast minimum a mail server and web server where I can test my php scripts and application.

Thanking you in advnace , iremain

Harish Balakrishnan Marar

[mittelgeek]

So apparently you want to set this box up to be a:

router
webserver
mail server

Although all these things can be done on the one machine, I personally would consider it a bit of security risk.

Moving on, I have not had the opportunity to setup a linux based mail server as of yet, but I did a bit of research in preparation to set one up. The same goes for the router.

I have setup a web server though (Apache), but I think the first thing that needs to be looked at is/are your network connection(s). Without those working, doing anything else would be a waste.

As stated in your post, you have two NICs in the box. I suppose you would want to connect each one to a separate network, i.e., WAN (Internet) and LAN (local machines).

I am a command line type of person so if you want to use a gui interface for this stuff you'll have to do the research to figure out what tools your distro provides.

Anyway...open a terminal in X or login to console and type in

ifconfig -a

Depending on what kind of setup you've got, e.g., VPN Tunnel, multiple NICs, fiber channel, etc., it may display lots of interfaces. For our purposes here, we are only going to be interested in ethernet devices.

In the output in the terminal, look for anything that says ethx, x being a number from one to whatever corresponding to each ethernet interface. These will be your ethernet cards. Since you said that you have two NICs in the system, you should have least two of these entries listed. Now each of these devices must be configured.

If you plan on making this box a server it would be wise, in my opinion, to assign static IP Addresses. This can be done by typing in

ifconfig [I]<interface>[/I] [I]<ip_address>[/I] netmask [I]<netmask>[/I]

Replace <interface> with ethx (corresponding to you first interface, probably eth0), <ip_address> with the ip address you want to assign for either the LAN or WAN connection, and <netmask> with the network mask that matches the ip given. Now do the same for the other interface. Type in

ifconfig -a

again and analyze the output for any mistakes and typos.

When it's all good, type in

ifconfig [I]<interface>[/I] up

This should bring up (read:activate) the interface that was specified. When you get this far, the mail/webserver/router functionality can then be setup.

I won't write anymore because by this point most prople would have fallen asleep.

PS Post back if there is/are no ethernet device(s) listed in the

ifconfig -a

output. That will require that some other things be done prior to the TCP/IP config for the interfaces being touched.