How to Build a Linux Server: Network, File, Print and Proxy Servers

In our series about building Linux servers, we will cover all the needs of an organization and emphasize how Linux will be able to assist the organization’s requirements. We begin the series with the basics of a networked organization: network, file and printer sharing, and a proxy server.

Before you choose your server, it is important to note your requirements and the anticipated growth of your network. If you have a small office with a couple of employees and you think you may have 100 in 2 years, then one of today’s fast computers will do it. If you already have an office with some hundred employees and think that number will climb to some thousand, then go with a professional solution.

For many items in the series, I will assume a wired network and command line usage. The X server (or the graphical user interface) is not recommended for server computers to avoid additional security risks. Wireless interfaces are not difficult really; they just need a little different configuration.

As noted by almost everyone, Linux was born to be networked. In fact, it was born on the network. In today's business life, everybody is networked, be it through a corporate local area network or the Internet. Linux has all the necessary foundations to act as a network server, even with the default desktop installation.

Before we go on, you must remember that you have to configure each computer's hostname as a unique value. No two computers can have the same hostname on a network.

The file that you will use is /etc/network/interfaces, which includes IP Address (address), Network Mast (netmask), Broadcast IP Address (broadcast), Class C Network Address (network) and Gateway IP Address (gateway). The words in the parentheses are the ones that you will see in the /etc/network/interfaces file. When you set them to your network's IP addresses and restart your network with the /etc/init.d networking restart command (as root), there is nothing left to do – your Linux computer will start to work as a network server.

If you want to give your server a test and see the computers connected to it, issue the nmap -sP 192.168.1.1-255 command (as root). The output should be Host tbalci (192.168.1.2) appears to be up for all the computers that are connected. If you have one which is not on the output, check the network cables and the network settings of that computer first.