How to Set up A Web Server in Linux?

Contributed by Davidlohr Bueso 

              This article teaches you, the reader, how to configure a GNU/Linux based server with three of the most important services that must be provided in a company, at home, a lab or anywhere else, both for clients and internal usage: web, database, mail. So it will be assumed that the idea is to host websites that use certain technologies such as a scripting language and a database (for dynamic sites), and also to act as a mailing tool, for sending and receiving email.

Consider that this article only shows some of the basic features for configuring these services, each program has much more in depth options. Entire books have been written just about Apache or MySQL. So, don't just stay with what you learn here, play around, read, learn; system administration is all about security and performance, so there's a lot more to discover.

netcat : A powerfull Utility

    Contributed by Girish Venkatachalam

            Netcat or nc in short can be aptly described as one of those two letter command-line tools that have all of legendary UNIX magic and power. nc however is a new program and does not share the age of well known programs like cat or dd. However its power and versatility make one think why no one came up with this before.

Server Security

              When a system is used as a server on a public network, it becomes a target for attacks. For this reason, hardening the system and locking down services is of paramount importance for the system administrator.

Before delving into specific issues, review the following general tips for enhancing server security:

• Keep all services current, to protect against the latest threats.

• Use secure protocols whenever possible.

• Serve only one type of network service per machine whenever possible.

• Monitor all servers carefully for suspicious activity.

Creating a new system local user account

The three most common methods of defining a Linux user and authenticating their logins are:

1. Local user authenticated locally with the password files /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow
2. Network authentication using an LDAP authentication server
3. NIS authentication server. To specify an NIS authentication server, use /etc/ypconf which contains the line: ypserver ip.address.of.server. Find with ypwhich

Basic System Administration