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devonps · 09-07-2008, 12:51

The Ubuntu server (8.04) is both free and the iso image that you download contains the following server options: LAMP, Mail, DNS, DHCP, Fileserver, OpenSSH and any or all can be installed on your machine.

I recently built a NAS box using UBUNTU, after the hardware build (and soak testing of course) the software took less than 30 minutes to complete a base installation and this included formatting of a 500gb samsung sata drive and the necessary O/S & application updates from the web.

Apart from defining a user & password (note: not root) the only other choices I made were:

a) How did I want to partiton the disk - I choose default (entire disk with sensible partitions)

b) Which servers(applications) do I want to install - and their associated user ids & passwords.

If you have a clean box & are on a tight budget why not give Ubuntu a try, after all you can always wipe the hard drive!

I appreciate your lack of knowledge about Linux in general, but Linux is not all about editing config files via the command line.

I've just thought of a final questions for you...do you expect your NAS box to have a keyboard, monitor & mouse attached to it when it's running?

BTW: This is a trick question, once setup servers don't need any of these attachments - you should be able to access your server remotely, ie via Telnet or putty. Of course it's your server so you can have a gui if you want - but all it will do is take up precious CPU cycles & disk storage.

Onto your next question....

Yes it would work in combination with your Virgin broadband modem & your router. As your VM modem will have been assigned an "external" IP address by VM. This address will be used by the web to see your VM modem and your router - so that the two devices can communicate with each other.

Now your router is called that becuase that's one of the things it can do, i.e. route IP based traffic. It can also "assign" internal IP addresses, i.e. those that start with 192. or 10. In other words it acts as a DHCP server and manages everything for you. Hence my earlier comment about why you would want to take this function away from a piece of hardware that does the job for you.

Good Luck.

See attached diagram for my current home network, I've missed off my "work" setup - but if you construct the diagram in this fashion it will help you visualise where potential problems could be.

09-07-2008, 12:51	#4
devonps Inactive Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Nottingham Services: 20mb bb, digital tv & phone Posts: 22	Re: Help setting up Networking Server The Ubuntu server (8.04) is both free and the iso image that you download contains the following server options: LAMP, Mail, DNS, DHCP, Fileserver, OpenSSH and any or all can be installed on your machine. I recently built a NAS box using UBUNTU, after the hardware build (and soak testing of course) the software took less than 30 minutes to complete a base installation and this included formatting of a 500gb samsung sata drive and the necessary O/S & application updates from the web. Apart from defining a user & password (note: not root) the only other choices I made were: a) How did I want to partiton the disk - I choose default (entire disk with sensible partitions) b) Which servers(applications) do I want to install - and their associated user ids & passwords. If you have a clean box & are on a tight budget why not give Ubuntu a try, after all you can always wipe the hard drive! I appreciate your lack of knowledge about Linux in general, but Linux is not all about editing config files via the command line. I've just thought of a final questions for you...do you expect your NAS box to have a keyboard, monitor & mouse attached to it when it's running? BTW: This is a trick question, once setup servers don't need any of these attachments - you should be able to access your server remotely, ie via Telnet or putty. Of course it's your server so you can have a gui if you want - but all it will do is take up precious CPU cycles & disk storage. Onto your next question.... Yes it would work in combination with your Virgin broadband modem & your router. As your VM modem will have been assigned an "external" IP address by VM. This address will be used by the web to see your VM modem and your router - so that the two devices can communicate with each other. Now your router is called that becuase that's one of the things it can do, i.e. route IP based traffic. It can also "assign" internal IP addresses, i.e. those that start with 192. or 10. In other words it acts as a DHCP server and manages everything for you. Hence my earlier comment about why you would want to take this function away from a piece of hardware that does the job for you. Good Luck. See attached diagram for my current home network, I've missed off my "work" setup - but if you construct the diagram in this fashion it will help you visualise where potential problems could be.