Which type of server to use?

In the fall I will be heading out to college and, as any good Totsean would do, I want to be able to share my collection of pr0n and music with my entire dorm.

I currently run Ubuntu 8.04 and wish to set up my computer to be ran as a server, however I'm not sure which type to use.

The dorms are intra(and inter) connected so LAN sharing is going to be ideal. What I wish to do is have the ability for others to access my server, see a login page with some sort of text such as "See room 406 for access" and perhaps have a list of a few things in the server on the page. Also, I want to be able for others to upload their own content. I'm not asking for you to tell me HOW to do all of this - I just need to know what type of server I should use. Should I just install a LAMP type server? Keep in mind I'm going to use the Ubuntu 8.04 Server OS.

If someone would point me in the right direction as to what type of server I should use I'll gladly research in order to learn how to manage/secure it. Any help will be appreciated.

[Prometheum]

I wouldn't use Ubuntu Server. It installs a lot of things that you don't need for a server that has a specific purpose. For servers that run Gnu, I nearly always use Gentoo.

For this you're asking for two things -- first, a fileserver. A server that serves files. You can do this in a lot of ways, but the best things to do in this case (music and porn) are as follows. (all of the applications mentioned are in the Gentoo portage tree.)

• Emerge mt-daapd and configure it to point at your music, then set it to start at boot. This runs a daap daemon (hence daapd), daap being the protocol that allows LAN computers running iTunes to "share" libraries. Most music players support daap, so it'll let you and your dorm listen to the music on the server without any extra configuration.
• Install and configure Samba shares for the music and porn and whatever else you want. You can have an "uploads" directory in each that's world-writeable, allowing anyone to dump anything into there. You can pick through it and sort it out later (for the music one, it'd be fun to write a script that auto-grouped files into directories based on relevant tags). You could also have a README file that described how to get (more) access, that could contain the "see room 101" info.
• Samba is okay, but it's fundamentally weak. For really powerful copying, I recommend (and this entire bullet is optional) setting up an rsync daemon. This will enable your dormmates to "sync" files and folders to and from your server, and uses the powerful rsync protocol to make things screaming fast. They could keep a directory of their music and sync it to your server, and after the first sync, they'd only be updating the parts of the files that were changed. They could also keep a mirror of your server locally if they needed faster access or wanted to back it up, and again, after the first run of rsync, they'd only be downloading the changed parts. You could do this with only samba, but it would be more of a hassle to configure clientside.
• I advise you against setting up a "web" frontend. It opens up some security holes (right now we're dealing with potentially insecure file privileged levels in Samba, and potential vulnerabilities in the three daemons that are running) by making you take into account the webserver, possibly PHP, the scripts on the server, and the database server. Besides, web front-ends to fileservers just suck. Who wants to upload their entire music library one song at a time? If you really want something like this, I advise just setting up a simple forum or something like that to discuss the server and/or contents, and possibly to provide a WebDAV interface to the files on it.
• Icecast would also be nice, and might be a reason to provide a web interface. Icecast is a streaming server, so it'll allow people to listen to a stream of a playlist or maybe queue up tracks using a browser. This might be handy for those using music clients that don't support daap.
• You'll probably also want to give a few people shell access, so just install openssh and do whatever you need to configure it (you might need to rename a file, but that's the most -- it'll be the simplest out of the five above). SSH is always handy, and you'll need it anyway to configure your server remotely.

The first two are the only truly vital ones. SSH is vital in a different sense, but you definitely should have it. It almost isn't optional. Rsync and HTTP/WebDAV are just icing on the cake. Rsync is the one I would rather spend time on, though, as it's infinitely more powerful and useful than an httpd. Icecast is nice to have, but since you have samba and daap, not really needed.

Since you're potentially running afoul of copyright law, I would encrypt the server's filesystems at the root level. This would mean you'd have to do some extra and potentially tricky configuration while installing Gentoo (and this is the one area where Ubuntu is better -- it just has an installer option for this), but thankfully it's all documented at the Gentoo Wiki. This is the guide I used for my servers, and it works great. Crypto is a very very good thing and since you might be a target, you should definitely use it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Good luck with this. Aim high with your goals, because they're all reachable with enough googling and there's nothing better than setting up a well-running server. If you're anything like me, you'll have loads of fun while doing it, as well.

EDIT: if you must use Ubuntu, all the stuff I mentioned is in the Ubuntu repos, so it won't be difficult at all to install. Using Ubuntu will make your server a bit bloated, though, and again, I highly recommend Gentoo.

[Zok]

I'm using debian for my server. It's a lot like ubuntu except it doesn't have (all) that crap that a server won't need. It was really fast and easy to install with the netinst disk and package management is a breeze with apt-get.

Thank you both so much for your help. I'm going to spend the next month or so attempting to finagle my server from the ground up.

I was planning to create a separate area where the users could upload their music/porn and was going to sort through it with a script so that no limewire type quality music intruded my collection. (Minimum biterate requirements, etc.)

Also, I will DEFINITELY take your advice on encrypting the files so that no prying administration eyes could see what actually was in the folder.

I think I'm going to try and use Gentoo *crings* so we'll see how that works out as you both seem to be against Ubuntu's server style. I'll fall on my face a thousand times even with the help of google - but that's the best way for me to learn. =) Thanks once again for your help, maybe I'll update you down the line on how it all turned out.

[Zok]

Originally Posted by Toxicwboy

I'll fall on my face a thousand times even with the help of google - but that's the best way for me to learn. =)

Damn yeah! If you need any help, swing by #E*Nix on irc.slashnet.org (follow the totse java chat applet and type: /join #e*nix ) or post back here.

[Prometheum]

Originally Posted by Toxicwboy

Thank you both so much for your help. I'm going to spend the next month or so attempting to finagle my server from the ground up.

I was planning to create a separate area where the users could upload their music/porn and was going to sort through it with a script so that no limewire type quality music intruded my collection. (Minimum biterate requirements, etc.)

Also, I will DEFINITELY take your advice on encrypting the files so that no prying administration eyes could see what actually was in the folder.

I think I'm going to try and use Gentoo *crings* so we'll see how that works out as you both seem to be against Ubuntu's server style. I'll fall on my face a thousand times even with the help of google - but that's the best way for me to learn. =) Thanks once again for your help, maybe I'll update you down the line on how it all turned out.

Just a caveat: Encrypting the files won't hide them from the administration. If an administrator takes her laptop into your dorm, she'll be able to connect to your server (unless you disable that -- she'll be able to see the daap share, but I doubt that would get you into trouble). The encryption will hide them from someone (like the MPAA) that raids and confiscates the server, because they won't be able to prove that anything was on it.

Just make your setup compatible with iTunes, with Rendezvous and some implementation of DAAP, and you're all set. People in general aren't going to go through all that trouble just for access to your server, and everyone uses iTunes these days.

I'm not so much worried about Administration being able to check my server, it's just they have the ability to go in my dorm whenever they want. So encrypting it would help on that level if they decide to confiscate my computer for some bizarre reason.

Originally Posted by Zip

Just make your setup compatible with iTunes, with Rendezvous and some implementation of DAAP, and you're all set. People in general aren't going to go through all that trouble just for access to your server, and everyone uses iTunes these days.

Yeah, very true. Half the kids going to college have are using Mac books anyway.