Ok long story short I'm trying to take one of my old desktop PC's, socket 939 AMD, and turn it into a small home server for a few friends and family. The functions I'm looking for are;

The ability to RDP into it from any OS, specifically XP.

VPN in and pull down a network drive that has mutliple user folders, that only specific users can access, and a shared folder for all users to access from anywhere in the US to any OS, specifically XP.The ability to work from a regular desktop until such time that proper server hardware can be purchased.


Is this possible using the Ubuntoo Server Edition and what packages would I need to do this? If not can you suggest another distro that can? I am used to using Server 2003 for work, however I don't want to spend that much money for an OS at home. I do have some lite experince using Ubuntoo desktop so I figured that would be the best choice for me. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

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Thank You Very Much,

Andrew Morgan

Desktop Support Specialist
Andrewmorgan.m@gmail.com
Infostructures Inc


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On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 3:36 PM, Andrew Morgan <andrewmorgan.m@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok long story short I'm trying to take one of my old desktop PC's, socket 939 AMD, and turn it into a small home server for a few friends and family. The functions I'm looking for are;

The ability to RDP into it from any OS, specifically XP.


VPN in and pull down a network drive that has mutliple user folders, that only specific users can access, and a shared folder for all users to access from anywhere in the US to any OS, specifically XP.The ability to work from a regular desktop until such time that proper server hardware can be purchased.



Ubuntu Server can serve all of these needs.* take a look at http://ebox-platform.com/* this is available in the software repositories or by adding the repositories to the source.list file.* You wouldn't necessarily need a shared folder for all users to access from anywhere if you have VPN configured.* If you still feel you need that requirement you best bet will be incorporating an ftp server and control the access to it.* Another option would be to use a windows program call Bitvise tunnelier that you can then use SFTP over SSH which is more secure.** The only requirement that you have listed that I am unsure is possible is RDP access, but VNC would get you the same results as what you are use to with remote desktop in XP.* Also understand that the Server ISO is all command line and doesn't provide any graphical front end by default.* It is designed to be as light and secure as possible.* If you require a graphical interface download the Desktop ISO.* You can still install server packages on a Desktop environment.



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Thomas E. Maleshafske
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Andrew Morgan wrote:
> The ability to RDP into it from any OS, specifically XP.
> VPN in and pull down a network drive that has mutliple user folders,
> that only specific users can access, and a shared folder for all users
> to access from anywhere in the US to any OS, specifically XP.
> The ability to work from a regular desktop until such time that proper
> server hardware can be purchased.

For this I'd use Hamachi as the VPN and Samba to serve file shares. It doesn't
get much simpler than that and it will be, IMHO, the most "native" way to
access the box from Windows - good. And the least amount of ports exposed to
the Internet - double good.

Unless you really expect a lot of use for this then the need for "proper"
server hardware is debatable. It won't do anything in particular that this
desktop won't do. As always, just make sure you have a good backup scheme.

> Is this possible using the Ubuntoo Server Edition and what packages
> would I need to do this? If not can you suggest another distro that can?
> I am used to using Server 2003 for work, however I don't want to spend
> that much money for an OS at home. I do have some lite experince using
> Ubuntoo desktop so I figured that would be the best choice for me. Any
> suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Just install the Ubuntu Desktop edition. Install the services you want and
press on. It will make a great server. Oversimplifying: there's nothing magic
about it being "server", for those of us deploying small servers the only
difference is that it has all the GUI bits and desktop apps stripped out which
makes for a leaner install. Oversimplifying.

Michael


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