Home server machine...

I am running MAMP on my MacBook Pro and like that setup, but I realized that I have a computer I built years ago (AMD-based) that is just sitting around. I am thinking it would be nice to just turn that in to a server, buy a reasonable firewall/vpn and use that to experiment with my projects and designs. All I would really need to do is put in a new HDD (thinking 10k WD Raptor) and 8-12 GB of ram. I have a few questions though:

-What software would be needed for it to be a server and accessible from my laptop anywhere?
-Since a standard home isp is dynamic and not static, will that be an issue? (I’d prefer not to get a 2nd mortgage to have a static ip address at the house...)
-In line with the first question, could I use WinXP and run WAMP on it? Or do I need specific server software?

This would not be used for any commercial purpose, just as a server for my projects but to be accessible anywhere I am at. Or would that be asking too much of my lowly little pc-based machine?

Thanks!

From my limited knowledge I would not suggest any windows based software for the server if on internet.
Any Linux based server would suffice.

Safest server software is usually BSD based but not for the feint hearted.

In your case I would use Ubuntu 10.04 server if you can use the command line as it comes with no gui.

If you want to use machine to work on as well I would use Latest Ubuntu or 10.04.

There are ways to monitor your ip-address as it changes. You would need a domain name but you can get free ones and use a service to update your ip-address. If this does not change too often and only you need this info you can do without it, even if you are away a lot I am sure you could monitor server for ip change and email yourself to gmail or other webmail provider.

I would recommend XAMPP for the the XP machine. It’s a fairly quick install (usually) and will give you a full Apache server plus PHP and MySQL.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html

BTW, it’s also available for the Mac:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html

That would be a quite capable server. Honestly overkill for hobbyist stuff. 4GB RAM and a lightweight, tuned OS should do quite well. You probably don’t even need 4GB RAM (2 should suffice if you’re not getting tons of traffic or processing lots of data).

I have an old PowerMac server, 500Mhz dual-processor with 2Gb RAM that works just great. It has a graphics problem that causes it to lock up sometimes, but that never happens when it’s just sitting being a server.

Quote from: rthrash at May 12, 2011, 09:02 AM

That would be a quite capable server. Honestly overkill for hobbyist stuff. 4GB RAM and a lightweight, tuned OS should do quite well. You probably don’t even need 4GB RAM (2 should suffice if you’re not getting tons of traffic or processing lots of data).

I suppose you are quite right. 8 GB is so cheap though I am sure I would just do that. Probably still go with a Raptor HDD since the MB and processor are a little bit older, but even the new smaller size Raptor drives are pretty cheap. I use MAMP with my macbook so I would imagine WAMP is almost identical in setup. Would it be accessible as a server from anywhere if I am running WinXP? That is where I am not sure how it would actually be set up.

Unless you have a dedicated IP address from your ISP that would be problematical, as the IP address assigned to your account gets changed from time to time.

There are services to provide a workaround for this

http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
http://www.dynamip.com/index.asp

IMHO xp is only suitable for home only use ie not connected as a server to internet.
Xp can be a server for home use.

Would still recommend a linux setup such as ubuntu. (server if no use is to be made of actual machine for dev or else desktop)
The safest servers on internet are usually BSD based or paid for UNIX machines.

Quote from: sottwell at May 12, 2011, 01:57 PM

Unless you have a dedicated IP address from your ISP that would be problematical, as the IP address assigned to your account gets changed from time to time.

There are services to provide a workaround for this

http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
http://www.dynamip.com/index.asp

Setting up Ubuntu might be beyond my scope of capability, unless it’s not much harder than using a normal operating system... Sottwell, I was looking at your first suggestion, which is free, but I could not tell if that will work thru a firewall/VPN such as the Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall FVS338. Not that this server would have anything of value on it beside a couple MODx projects but I still want to keep access to my home network safe.

One of these would probably answer that question.

http://www.google.co.il/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=638&q=netgear+prosafe+vpn+firewall+fvs338+port+forward&oq=Netgear+Prosafe+VPN+Firewall+FVS338&aq=5j&aqi=g4g-v1g-j1g-b4&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1831l1831l0l1l1l0l0l0l0l306l306l3-1&fp=41bd6dd91d01b168

A WAMP server would be just as useful as anything else; you would need to do a bit of work to secure it if you want to make it accessible to the outside Internet.

http://www.wampserver.com/phorum/read.php?2,33329,33344#msg-33344