Learning About Servers, Reliable Sources

Rice, welcome to Webmaster-Forums.

There are some good sources for learning but personal opinion nothing beats that hands-on experience. Cisco's site has some pretty good info on setting up a network.

Quote: Another thing, if I was to ever buy a server(servers), I would install the latest Red Hat. Anyone have any good sources on Red Hat ready servers or software?

Personal opinion here is that the only reason that I would install RedHat in a corporate environment is to get the $upport that they offer. There are a lot of flavors of Linux/Unix that would fit the bill. Some are specialized for certain niches. In a nutshell, the main difference between the different distros is basically what what comes with them and where they place files. I could take any flavor of Linux and make it look like any other one. Just have to move some files around to do so. The latest versions of RedHat may not be what you need either. Most servers running RedHat are probably at version 6.2, the most stable version. FreeBSD is also a good choice for a server but a little harder to setup.

My advice would be to obtain an older computer, maybe one of the earlier Pentiums (166 & up) and install something like RedHat 6.2 on it. You could probably find a book at your local bookstore that would have a copy of 6.2 in it. Load the OS on this old computer and use it as a learning machine. Don't load X-windows (graphical desktop) since it may hinder your learning. Play around with it set up a file server or a web server and break things and fix things. Loads of fun.

If you want a good book on servers, the best one that I have is called Linux NetWork Servers 24/7. It starts from the beginning and covers all types of servers with setup and everything.

Hope this helps. Post back if you need any more info.

Cool stuff.

Although right now I'm a little strapped for cash, so I'm not about to go out and buy anything quite yet.

Also, I only have one computer that would be suitable for installing R.H. on, and thats a family computer (and unfortunately, parents dont know a lot about computers, so therefore restricts the things I do on it, like installing a new OS).

Also, being a 16 year-old and all, funding also goes to other things, including (what im doing now) saving for a car, car payments, gas, plus any little things I want to get for myself.

So it looks like It will be a while before any of this happens, but I'm sure looking forward to it!

P.S. Donations are acceptable and highly encouraged.

Begging and borrowing is what you may want to do next. There a lot of people that have computers like this that they would throw away. You could also install Redhat on a computer and have Windows on there too.