Setting up a home server for hosting personal sites with Backtrack 5

wrcloebfan

New member
Hey guys,
I like playing with networking stuff so thought of converting my old trash PC to a home dedicated server, I've already done it with windows server so thought of doing it with linux, I have copy of Ubuntu, CentOS and Backtrack, but I was wondering as backtrack is said to be most powerful and robust in terms of security out of these why not having a web server on backtrack? Anyone has idea regarding this? :smile:
 

GigaGreg

Moderator
Staff member
idk, i had a windows server with 5 firewalls and Anti ddos protection and now vps on centos, never heard of backtrack untill now.
 

jimkirk

New member
pretty sure backtrack is just ubuntu but with a bunch of security and pen testing applications pre installed, i have no idea i haven't used backtrack in years.. but centOS is a great, stable and secure i'd have to recommend that
 

wrcloebfan

New member
igdesigner said:
yeah, centos is good, i will check out tht blacktrack today and see what it is.

Well Backtrack is another linux distribution basically used for security purposes, forensics and ethical hacking purposes like penetration testing etc. As it needs to perform such operations so it's very robust and doesn't crash easily, you can checkout more about Backtrack on there official website http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ and on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack :smile:
 

GigaGreg

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, i have just googled that website, seems to be alright, because it has all of the options for a server, also very nice looking gui.
 

Peter

Member
Did you see that the official BackTrack website says that it's no longer being maintained. They seem to recommend Kali Linux instead. I don't have any experience with these distros so I can't recommend anything myself.
 

apples723

New member
If your talking about hosting a website from your home, Don't because most ISP block port 80 also your website would be very slow(depending on your ISP) . Also if your just talking about hosting local stuff, I would definetly use linux over windows server. because of the fact it is less power hungry.
 

ha_97

New member
If I were you, I won't waste the time to host by yourself.

But if you really want to do so, you may try AWS EC2.
Free tier for 1 year.

Old hardware may not be reliable, especially HDD.
 

markuss

New member
if you are doing linux from the scatch, i would recomend freenas.org A lot of users arround you will inform you about security issues. If using from outside your Home, you should think about vpn or ssl. Owncloud and backup, there will grow an endless wishlist...


"3. What do I need to get started with FreeNAS?

To use FreeNAS, you'll need standard PC hardware with a 64-bit processor and at least 8GB of RAM, a 4GB USB Flash drive, and a FreeNAS installation file. Either write FreeNAS directly to the flash drive or boot the CD installer to have it done for you. Point your web browser at the IP address of the FreeNAS system and you're good to go! Read the FreeNAS Documentation for more information.

4. Is FreeNAS Safe and Secure?

FreeNAS is based on the highly secure FreeBSD operating system and follows security best practices in development. However, FreeNAS is not designed as security software and it depends on being protected from hostile traffic by a properly configured firewall. FreeNAS supports 256-bit encryption to prevent drives from being read if they're physically removed from the system, but this doesn't protect against data being read in transit over the network or via compromised user credentials. Like all software, FreeNAS depends on good security practices to keep data safe."
 

matosma

New member
wrcloebfan said:
Hey guys,
I like playing with networking stuff so thought of converting my old trash PC to a home dedicated server, I've already done it with windows server so thought of doing it with linux, I have copy of Ubuntu, CentOS and Backtrack, but I was wondering as backtrack is said to be most powerful and robust in terms of security out of these why not having a web server on backtrack? Anyone has idea regarding this? :smile:

ubuntu is best choice for webserver, backtrack is not secure as ubuntu , backtrack is made for security testing, not to be secure. there is a big defference.
go for ubuntu you can find support in case of problem . not as much as backtrack