Tired of my Windows Server....

[Diabolus]

I have a Windows 2000 server that runs my network and frankly, it's piss poor in performance for simple filesharing, print sharing, and as an FTP server for friends. It's just too damn slow and I have a decent machine running it.

I'm thinking of switching to Linux so that I can replace the duties Windows has as my fileserver and print server. However, my printer, an HP LaserJet 1100... will it work with Linux?

Also another quick question is this; what version of Linux should I get? Keep in mind I've *never* used it before and if it's all commandline driven I will be extremely confused. I want the simplicity of Windows with the stability of Linux, so which version would you recommend to get? I want it to be fast, don't need EVERY feature for a server (it's not a web server, just for my home). I have a router that does DHCP and firewall duties so that is also taken care of... Please let me know your advice!

Thanks!

 

[sciencewhiz]

your printer will definetly work.

As for what distribution, that's been discussed ad nauseum.

 

[GhettoFob]

Start with something simple like Red Hat/Mandrake. Move to Debian/Gentoo when you're more comfortable with Linux. That's What I did. 🙂

 

[skyking]

The GUI is part of the slowness issue with your 2k server, and installing a linux distro with a GUI will not help that much. A GUI is a GUI, as for as overhead is concerned.
You can give up the FTP if you can train your freinds to use SSh and sftp. It is included in any of the distros, or the BSDs.

 

[Kadarin]

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-LaserJet_1100

 

[Diabolus]

Okay but as for setting up user maps for my MP3s to be streamed across the network, my FTP server, public directories, protected directories, etc... how hard is this to all do?

I think I'm leaning towards Mandrake because my friend is familiar with it and I can bother him if I have any severe problems...

Please let me know 🙂

 

[straubs]

If you have a friend that knows his stuff and isn't just a beginner, than that is your best choice. If you don't want to bother him all the time, then you can really use anything and there are all kinds of support forums for this stuff and numerous tutorials and how-tos.

I have a FreeBSD machine that runs a web server, ftp, ssh, mail, but I haven't yet set up Samba for networking it with the windows machines, mostly cuz that isn't a priority and I haven't had time to do it...I just use FTP for transferring for now..

I don't understand where your "slow" problem is exactly... Like if you mean the GUI shell reacts slow or actually using the shared folders, etc, are the slow point? It is true that a GUI on linux will slow it down like windows does as skyking said (but I'd argue it will slow it much less), so if that is where the slowness occurs, you'll just have to try it and see. My server is 100% command line, but it's not a problem because most of the actual setup on the server itself is modifying text files. Just simple things, really. It would just be a waste to use a GUI for that. However there is a LOT of stuff that can also be run with a web page front end, so you can administer the machine from any other machine, just by using the web browser to connect to it. Of course you have to run a web server to make it work.

 

[Diabolus]

Well my problem is this, that my Windows box is rather unreliable. I have to reboot my workstation in order to retain drive maps, else they just wind up going 'dead', and I feel that having Windows is quite overkill for my needs, which I mentioned already.

I've already decided on using Mandrake and thus I just want somewhere I can go (I know Anandtech isn't the best place for it) to get feedback on a fast basis should I need some help. Like I said, just need FTP, file serving, print serving, and user-based drive-maps. It's nothing spectucular in purpose and I think that it would be good if I started to learn Linux 🙂

Please let me know of any good links you have (forums or whatever) where I can go for help! 🙂

 

[skyking]

have a FreeBSD machine that runs a web server, ftp, ssh, mail, but I haven't yet set up Samba for networking it with the windows machines, mostly cuz that isn't a priority and I haven't had time to do it...I just use FTP for transferring for now..

I have several different FreeBSD servers here and at friend's places, all running Samba on workgroup situations. If you really want to get into it, Samba can be a domain controller as well.
After installing samba, it is really not that hard to do, If you have a grasp of TCP/IP and permissions. It is nearly the same as it is on your windows server. You can ask here about writing your smb.conf file, the configuration for samba.

In freebsd, you can /stand/sysinstall, and a nice little interface with many options pops up. A couple of menus in, there is an "add users and groups" interface. Put in each user, leave group alone, use the same password as they use on the windows machine.
Do that till you get them all in there.
Next, smbpasswd -a < username > ................without the<>
it will give you a password prompt. Type that in and you are truly done for that user. User now has a file on server automatically logging in when he logs in to windows machine. This can also be mapped as a network drive.