An explanation of how this site came to be and what I used to build it.
First of all, I’m not a developer. I don’t write code beyond the most basic scripts. I’ve had this domain for about 5 years and never really did much with it, until recently. When I first purchased the domain it was because I was supporting a web based application for creating small business e-commerce sites. I wanted one to play around and learn to use our site creation java application. I used the domain for re-creating customer problems and trying out solutions.
I’ve long since moved on to other things in my professional life, thankfully. That site creation java app was a huge, stinking, bug laden, piece of crap. The site languished on a free web-host provided by the domain registrar for several years. At the time it had a few low-res pictures and static pages with a DHTML navigation menu. Nothing to write home about or visit a second time.
I was looking for a way of collecting POP3 mail from a bunch of different personal and business e-mail accounts for myself and my family. Another requirement was filtering viruses and spam out before it got to the desktop. I like the idea of using a Linux box because of what I heard about it’s security and scalability. I figured I could use it as a network gateway and web server as well. I had no Linux experience. So, I began trying out different distributions.
I tried a few distros including Redhat, SUSE and Linspire, I didn’t really want a fancy GUI with a KDE or Gnome desktop. I wanted a box I could tuck away in a corner someplace and forget about. I had the parts for a couple of “doorstop” class PCs gathering dust in the garage, and needed something that didn’t have very steep hardware requirements. I didn’t want to spend sleepless nights learning the pitfalls of configuring a messaging and gateway server.
Found an article on Distrowatch about something called E-smith, then owned by Mitel. It sounded like an easy to install and use messaging platform built from a modified Redhat 7.3 platform. No GUI, no x-windows driver issues, no monitor, keyboard or mouse needed. It’s configured using a web page accessible only on the LAN side of the network. Since then it’s changed hands from Mitel to Lycoris to Ruffdogs.com and morphed into SME Linux.
I got SME 6.0.1 up and running on a PII-350 with 128MB of mismatched RAM, with an 10GB HD and a noisy CD-ROM, and a couple of old network cards, all salvaged from my box of parts. I installed all of that in an old case a friend gave me. I knew I kept all those old parts I upgraded for some reason. 
It took maybe 45 minutes to install and do some basic configuration and I booted to a fully functioning Linux server. Beyond my original requirements it added file, print and domain services from samba for my little 4 client LAN, as well as a fully functioning Apache web server with MySQL and PHP. SME also has iptables setup and locked down with very secure firewall settings out of the box, allowing it to act as the network gateway replacing a router.
After a few visits to the SME Linux support forums, I got fetchmail, Spamassassin and ClamAV retrieving and filtering the mail as desired. It also runs remote black lists to slap back virus laden spam before it gets in the door and sucks up system resources reading and filtering unwanted messages.
Once the mail and gateway stuff was in place and running stable, I started looking at the web server. I noticed that SME supported dynamic DNS services. This would allow me to run my own mail server and web server from the dynamic IP provided by my cable modem. I promptly changed my domain registrar to yi.org. I picked them from the list of dynamic DNS services supported out of the box by SME. My web server happily chugs along on a dynamic IP.
Being free of my free web host meant no more piddling storage limits. Hi-res photos were now a possibility. First I added Gallery to better manage photos. It’s a nice stand alone product I originally found out about on the SME forums.
I coasted along for nearly a year with my static homepage, DHTML menus, and Gallery running on SME Linux. After my mostly positive experience with PHP pages in Gallery I started looking for other cool PHP applications. I found Geeklog, also on the SME forums, and installed it.
Getting Geeklog to work with a pre-existing installation of Gallery proved to be a major nightmare. Eventually I took the path of least resistance and saved my Gallery album directory and removed the application entirely, then re-installed it as sub-directory in the Geeklog public html folder. The developers of Geeklog and Gallery worked together to create a very good integration of the two, as long as you install Geeklog first, then Gallery.
Other than Geeklog and Gallery I’ve added a blocks for Google Adsense, Blogroll links, Geeklog User Stat plugin, Menu plugin and Galleryblock to display the most recent albums and the most popular albums. I also added a custom banner to one of the Geeklog themes to display the site name without the limitations of text.
Currently, I’m running the server on upgraded hardware:
Antec Solution Series SLK2650-BQE Case
Biostar M7NCD Motherboard
Generic 768MB PC-2700 DDR
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB HDD
APC Back-UPS BE350U Back-up Power Supply
Samsung DVD-R
The software for the site is as follows:
SME Linux 6.0.1 with a variety of add-ons
MySQL 4.0.22
PHP 4.3.11
Geeklog 1.3.9
Gallery 1.4.4-pl6
Now I’m working on driving some traffic to my site.
Update:
I’m now running the blog on Wordpress 2.0. I switched because WordPress is easier to manage for a blog and has better bloggy features, like pingback and trackback support, easier plugin installation and much better themes.
Update2:The server has undergone serious renovation.
- SME 7.3
- Wordpress 2.2.3
- Gallery 2.2
The hardware is now:
- Anthlon64 3000
- MSI K8T NEO2-F
- GeIL Value 1GB (2 x 512MB) SDRAM DDR 400
- 2 160GB Segate Barracuda SATA drives in a RAID1 configruation
- 1 External 320 GD Seagate Barracuda SATA backup drive
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
