Robert La Lau - Practical Internet Server Configuration: Learn to Build a Fully Functional and Well-Secured Enterprise Class Internet Server

There are various reasons why people (business or private) would prefer to take the hosting of services such as websites and email into their own hands. There are just as many reasons why people wouldnt want to do that.

The most important reasons for in-house hosting are confidentiality and control. It might, for instance, be undesirable to store the business communication (email, online help desk) with an external party; the storage of client data may be another reason to prefer a self-managed solution. If the server must run custom software, it may even be impossible (or extremely expensive) to host it with a third party.

The most important reasons to delegate the hosting are expertise and time; both are required to keep a server up to date, to monitor it, and to create backups. Everybody will have to decide for themselves about the time available for server maintenance. This book will at least try to bring the knowledge to the required level and provide the system administrator with a good starting point by guiding them through the initial configuration of the server; it will also provide the system administrator with tools for finding additional information.

This book takes the reader from a vanilla server a server with only the operating system installed, without any modifications, as it may be supplied by a hosting provider, for exampleto a fully functional internet server that is ready to be deployed. The resulting server will provide all services that may be expected from an internet server (DNS, email hosting, web hosting, etc.). This server will be secured adequately, and the system administrator will dispose of the expertise necessary to keep the system up to date, to monitor it, and to create and restore backups.

An online addendum for this book, providing configuration and script examples, as well as links to additional information, is freely accessible to anyone at www.librobert.net/book/internet/addendum .

All the software discussed in this book is so-called free software . This means that for all software the source code is freely available and may be verified and even modified by the user prior to installation. Many, including the author of this book, are convinced that this openness benefits the efficiency, stability, and security of the software, because bugs and leaks are found sooner and are therefore also repaired more rapidly.