Arch Linux

greenfish

Member

From: eating fish in /dev/null

Registered: 2008-08-30

Posts: 229

[SOLVED] archlinux as a server setup for torrent/newsgroups/ftp etc?

Hi! I'm a noob when it comes to networking in general. I just bought a new laptop, and I was thinking about turning my stationary pc into a server, file server to be precise. I want to control the server from my laptop, so the actual downloading goes through/saves content to my hdd, but the actual management comes from my laptop, web interface maybe?

Is this possible? And is archlinux a great distro to use as a server or should I try a more stable one like debian etch?

Once more, im thinking about makin a server from my stationary setup (archlinux, no GUI), which will download using torrents/newsgroups/emule etc, but the actula management comes from my laptop through a web/ssh interface, is this possible?

Thank You

Merry Xmas and a happy new year!

Last edited by greenfish (2009-05-04 10:34:22)

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Xyne

Administrator/PM

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 6,965

Website

Re: [SOLVED] archlinux as a server setup for torrent/newsgroups/ftp etc?

Why wouldn't it be possible?

The wiki has a good ssh page: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH
For file sharing you could either use NFS (network file shares) or you could set up an ftp server using vsftpd (use the later if you want to be able to access your files from outside of your LAN, it provides options for encrypted file transfers etc). Both have wiki entries.
For torrents, you can look at rtorrent which, although I haven't used it myself, is apparently a highly recommended and feature-rich command-line torrent client.

Some things to consider for network security and access:
use iptables or some other firewall and learn how to set up permissions properly
make sure that you've configured /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.denied for the services that use them
don't forget about punching holes in your router's firewall if you want to access services from outside your LAN
use non-standard ports for your services to reduce/avoid attacks

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Ruckus

Member

Registered: 2007-02-17

Posts: 204

Re: [SOLVED] archlinux as a server setup for torrent/newsgroups/ftp etc?

Hi! I'm a noob when it comes to networking in general. I just bought a new laptop, and I was thinking about turning my stationary pc into a server, file server to be precise. I want to control the server from my laptop, so the actual downloading goes through/saves content to my hdd, but the actual management comes from my laptop, web interface maybe?

Is this possible? And is archlinux a great distro to use as a server or should I try a more stable one like debian etch?

Once more, im thinking about makin a server from my stationary setup (archlinux, no GUI), which will download using torrents/newsgroups/emule etc, but the actula management comes from my laptop through a web/ssh interface, is this possible?

Thank You

Merry Xmas and a happy new year!

Arch is a great candidate as a server. I am running it on a vps (Virtual Private Server) from slicehost.com and currently have 48 days up time: http://rhost1.georgemh.com/3rdparty/phpsysinfo/

You will want SSH (openssh) to control the server remotely.

SSHFS is what you will want for transferring files between your server while you are outside of your LAN, (its extremely easy to set up as well with nothing other than the base SSH package needed on the server).

If you need access to the server from a windows box you will need samba, and to access files from outside of your lan, consider tunneling samba over SSH

I don't suggest using FTP as it can be a pain to get secured properly, using SSHFS or samba over ssh you get encryption from the SSH protocol, without the hassle of worrying about securing it properly.