Linux Server
Linux is an advanced, 32 bits, operating system. It comes with full networking and a wealth of interconnection options. Best of all Linux is free.
Because of its efficiency and its networking capabilities, Linux makes a perfect server. In many cases, one of the old i386 or i486 rusting in the stock room of your company can be turned into a good server.
In most Local Area Networks (LAN) a server means a printer server and a files server. With a printer server one can print from any workstation on the network. A printer server enable an organisation to efficiently use its printers and cut cost, i.e. you don't need a printer for every PC you have. In many instances, this function alone justify the cost of networking all your computers.
A files server enables networked computers to access files on the server as if they were local to the computer. This is the best way to share files between computer, and you don't need to do the "floppy Makarena.
One of the problem with Files/Print server is that there is so many different systems out there. Microsoft is using LanManager (aka SMB), Novell promotes Netware while Apple Computers relies on AppleTalk. On top of that Unix mostly uses NFS (Network File System), AFS (Andrew File System),... As you can see, if you have different types of computers it can turn into a nightmare.
The good thing is: Linux can do it, all of it, at the same time. This makes management a lot easier. Also, by having one server handling all those protocols, you can access the very same files regardless of the platform or protocol used by the computer in front of you. An added advantage is that by using Linux you can tailor the services offered depending on the computer and/or the user accessing the server.
So how does Linux do it?
For handling SMB, Linux uses a software aptly named Samba. With Samba you can fool the Windoze (for Workgroup, 95, NT) workstations on your network into believing they are accessing an NT server. Furthermore, Samba can turn your Linux server into a master browser or a WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) server. You can even use Samba to do net logons. For those of you who did not understand the last 2 sentences, here it is again, plain and simple: In most cases, if you use Linux and Samba, you don't need to buy NT!
Support for Netware is done by a software named "mars_nwe" (stands for Martin Stovers Netware Emulator) With this software you turn your Linux server into a Netware File and Printer server. If you use Netware 4.x and/or NDS, a commercial product is available from Caldera.
Appletalk support is done through Netatalk (pronounce need-to-talk, speak quickly). Here again, you can see you Linux files and printers as if they were coming from a "normal" AppleTalk server. You'll need to have you Apples on Ethernet (Ethertalk).
As for Unix services, no problem! Linux can be turn into an NFS server (even pc-nfs) very easily. The next release of Linux promises even better and faster NFS support.
As you can read, Linux is a great server platform, but better! Linux can also be used as a client, accessing services provided by other servers. The best use of this feature would be to turn you Linux box into a networked back-up server.
Serving a LAN is quite nice but what about the fad of the decade, the Internet?
Here again, Linux has it all.
Email is arguably the most important tool on the Internet and Linux can easily be turned into your company mail hub. As an example, here is how my Linux email server is setup.
I have a small LAN with several computers (including Win95. SunOS, Solaris) and several users. My Linux server is connected to the Internet 7-8 times a day using a PPP link to an Internet provider in Thailand. When someone on my LAN is sending an email ( using Netscape, Eudora,...), he sends it to the Internet email (SMTP) server on my Linux box. The server uses the standard "sendmail" software. Sendmail looks-up the email and spools any outgoing email. Whenever the server connects to the Internet, sendmail sends out the spooled email's.
For receiving it is almost as simple. I rent a "domain" mailbox from a provider in the US. Every email sent to an address in my domain goes into that mailbox. When my server connects to the Internet, it use a software called "fetchmail" to download email's from the US-based POP account. It then proceed to send each email to sendmail, and sendmail delivers them into the mailboxes of the local users. Every user can now retrieve his email from his local POP account.
It is a simple, cheap and very effective setup. It uses Linux and only 3, freely available softwares. Sendmail, to deliver email's, fetchmail to retrieve email from Internet mailboxes and Qpopper so that local user can retrieve their email from their POP account. All those tools use standard protocols. Furthermore, having a "domain" mailbox is cool but not required, each user could have his own remote mailbox, fetchmail can handle that too. Fetchmail can even use the newer IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol).
Indeed Linux is a great server for those with intermittent Internet connection, but it can also be used by those lucky enough to have a 24hrs link to the Internet. Linux can be set-up as a cheap router. It can route IP and IPX and it supports X.25, Frame Relay, PPP and ISDN. The next version of Linux will have even better WAN (Wide Area Network) routing support.
Linux can also be a WEB server using, for example, Apache, the most used Web server on the Internet. It can also be an FTP server, but by now I am sure you must have guessed it.
I have kept the best for the end. I am sure all the ISP"s in Thailand will go mad at me for this one. With one Linux box, and one Internet Dial-up account, you can give full Internet access to everybody on your LAN! This means with one account EVERYBODY on your LAN can browse, ftp, telnet or listen to their favourite RealAudio channel ( well... you may have a bandwidth problem here ). The magic is done by something called IP masquerading. With IP masquerading, all you computers think they talk directly to the remote servers, and all the server think they talk to your Linux box. And in the middle, the Linux box multiplexes everything. Best of all, setting that up takes only one command! How is that for simple?
As you can see Linux can do quite a lot of thinks. Can Linux solve your problem? I don't know. But since Linux is free, it is well worth giving it a try. So next time you look a computer problem in the eyes, think about Linux.
Happy linuxing