Many of us want to have our own server, some for just trying out things, some for their home networks , even small business network or in schools & colleges. The first thing that comes to our mind while thinking about setting up a server is cost. Though various free VPS & Domain services do exists but they do not have desired control over the server. If the need is duly private then I can suggest you some ways out here to set up your own ftp, http , sql and mail server with smtp and pop3/imap protocol. This post only deals with Linux as the base environment. So no windoze users here.
First step is to choose a specific distribution with which you are most comfortable. If you are a rpm guy then I suggest you to go for Redhat Enterprise Linux or Centos. After selecting the distro get it running up on you target machine. Now when your machine has been set up install the following packages via add/remove software.
- Apache For http
- Postfix For smtp
- Dovecot For pop3/imap
- Mysql For mysql
- Vsftpd For ftp
- system-switch-mail
Setting up Apache is quite simple. Just start httpd service on your machine. If you need to further modify its setting then go to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.
For setting up MySQL server refer to my earlier post on Setting up MySql on Linux.
For the ftp server just start VsFTPd service on your machine.
The following procedure implies for mail server setup.
First of all edit your PostFix server settings.
Go to /etc/postfix and open main.cf in a text editor.
Then search for the following keys in the file.
inet_interfaces = all
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain
home_mailbox = Maildir/
Un-comment all these lines and in the system-switch-mail window select postfix.
Then start the postfix service.
Here your smtp protocol server has been set up.
Now to set up pop3/imap server open dovecot.conf located in /etc and look out for the following keys.
protocols = pop3 pop3s imap imaps
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir/
pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh
pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
Un-comment these lines and change as required.
64 bit users should add login_process_size = 64 in file /etc/dovecot.conf.
Now start the dovecot service and your pop3/imap server is up.
Note: To start a service type service start in your shell prompt.
