For reasons unknown to us, people continue to use expensive hardware, Microsoft’s bloated Operating Systems and install GUI applications on headless web servers (no monitor, mouse or keyboard). We are here to show people that you do not need mega bucks hardware and expensive proprietary software to run a smooth and reliable web server.

For server hardware we headed to NewEgg.com. No real reason except we had to use USPS shipping to an APO box. This limited some online choices, but if you are in the states, there should be even more; less expensive avenues for you to seek. TigerDirect.com was also researched, but proved to be “slightly” more expensive (barely).

We purchased the following items from NewEgg, and assembled them inside a case we already had laying around (an ASUS generic workstation case). The list is as follows:

ECS Goal 3+ Motherboard with AMD Sampron 3000+ CPU: $54.99

1Gib (2x512mb) RAM -184pin PC3200 DDR400: $32.99

Western Digital 40gig SATA HDD: $39.99

2x 80mm Case Fans: $2.49ea

ASUS 16X DVD ROM Drive: $14.99

Cooler Master CPU Cooling fan: $4.99

Total was $189.30 shipping and tax all told.

For software we used Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS Edition, Apache 2, MySQL, PHP, WordPress, and Webmin for the days we’re feeling lazy. Total cost of software: $0.00. For System Information click HERE.

Software installation was pretty straight forward with little hand editing done to complete the server. Apache2 does require some editing with in to include the VirtualHosts needed to fulfill the Blogging sites (there are several running on this server, OpenLUG is one of many).

Within WordPress we also installed several “Plugins” to include “FixDatabase”, “One Click Plugin Updater”, “Akismet” and “WordPress.com Stats”. There are literally thousands of plugins you can choose from; these simple few are all we needed to fulfill our Blogging needs.

Some extras we had laying around that got included inside the hardware of this server were a 250gig SATA HDD (/var/www) and an extra 512mb DDR400 stick of Ram bringing the total ram to 1.5gig.

This server handles thousands of hits a day; with an all time high of 10,000+ in a 24 hour period. Virus software consists of Clam AV running constantly and updated hourly via Cron job. Viruses aren’t a huge concern when GNU/Linux is concerned as apposed to the virus magnet known as Microsoft.

For questions on this setup please contact anyone at OpenLUG or simply search around, we’re going to “eventually” have a tutoral for most of the steps needed to run your own web server from home.