Server Help

[obe1kenobi]

I haven't done much with servers and I'd like to learn. So I used the HowToForge walkthrough to install a LAMP server. I was wondering what I needed as far as a website to host my server. Do I need to buy a domain? Can I just use a free subdomain? Who should I go through for hosting the site?

Also does a mail server actually allow you to do? Does it mean you can set up your own email addresses?

I don't really know much about the topic so any help would be much appreciated.

Please post any recommended reading (books or sites) as well.

[pppetter]

when you have a website(homepage etc) that you want to put on the internet, start with using a free subdomain. It's free :) You will actually be the one hosting your website, since it's your server.

I got my subdomain via www.no-ip.org, since I don't have a static IP-adress, but a dynamic. In my router(D-link) I configured so that my server got a static internal ip, I forwarded the http port to my server, and just added my username and password for my no-ip.com account so that it will report my new dynamic ip when it changes.

If you would set up a mailserver and you have a domain or like me, a subdomain, then yes, you can set up your own email adresses(as in example@yourdomain.com or example@your.subdomain.com).

I hope that my examples gave you something :)

[obe1kenobi]

Thanks for the info, I'll try that. \\:D/

[Iowan]

It might be worth checking your ISP's guidelines concerning webservers. At least a couple of the ISP's I've considered changing to (my dial-up is getting painfully slow for updating Ubuntu) expressly forbid "a server directly or indirectly (hidden behind a router) attached to their network through a subscriber account.