linux server for home network to integrate with OS X, Win2k?

A

agh98

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At my home I use my OS X desktop 99% of the time but have a couple of laptops running W2k as well on WIFI.
I don't have OS X server but am seeking to achieve the following:
1) Sharing volumes/folders across the local network.
2) Some kind of LDAP/etc. solution for my address book on the PCs and Mac (to share my address book with Mail.app on the mac and outlook/etc. on the PC)
3) Some kind of Firefox/Safari bookmark sharing so updates on the PC will go to the mac and vice versa.

While it's probably more trouble than its worth, I was debating the feasibility of having a standalone headless PC running Redhat or the like to achieve the above. I would hopefully be able to telnet in to the box to administrate it instead of having a monitor on it 24/7. Anyone think this is possible or have ideas/suggestions?

Thanks.
 
Yes, its feasible.

To keep myself amused, I installed Yellowdog Linux on my Performa 6400 which was gathering dust in the cupboard. I use it for file sharing etc and I set up WebDAV mainly to publish my iCal calender. (Once read a tip/hack explaining how to 'fool' OSX and use WebDAV to run your own .Mac service!)

You're probably aware that Yellowdog is basically a port of Redhat so it comes with most of Redhat's GUI system configuration apps and you can use these remotely. Had to install X-Windows on the 6400 and X11 on my own Mac, then I connect using the terminal in X11. I use the 'ssh' command with option '-X'. Once connected I just type the name of the app e.g. 'redhat-config-users' and a few seconds later the app appears on the X11 desktop as though it is running locally. Bit sluggish but it does the job.

There are other applications you can run this way. I use Mozilla to access a service I installed which is called 'Webmin'. Its pretty nifty as it allows you to configure scores of system settings from a web browser.

Remember you will need a monitor available for when things go wrong. Like when I managed to disable remote logins while configuring the firewall! I also found Yellowdog had a steep learning curve so if you don't know Linux you'll need a good book!

Hope this helps.
 
that sounds like fun....I think I'll attempt it on a rainy day. I actually haven't played around with that linux distro. Used redhat years ago several times and was impressed each time at how much more developed it had become.

I'm interested in the Webdav server and filesharing shouldn't be too tough to setup. It sounds like a great idea for a network based backup device also (but, of course, I love CCC with my external firewire drive right now).

It's nice to hear that someone else got the linux server thing to work at home. If anyone else has and has suggestions, it could be useful for all of us.
 
Samba for Windows File/Print sharing.
netatalk for Apple file/print sharing.

I run a FreeBSD machine with the same purpose. It has Netatalk, Samba and NFS
running, NTP server, DNS/DHCP, and an internal web server. I am going to play with radius, and wireless authentication for my network.

Any linux distro will work. SuSe, Red Hat, Mandrake are more windows like, where slackware is more UNIX like. FreeBSD has the ports collection, which eases installation.

As for remote administration, I use ssh, and the command line tools. You might want to use SSH vs telnet, on the account that telnet uses plaintext wheeh ssh is encrypted.

For headless, thats not a big problem, just make sure your PC will w/o a keyboard, if not, just leave a keyboard pluged in. And, what I do, is I boot the machine with a monitor, and keyboard, then I unplug them after it has come up, then if there is a problem, I can just hook them up, where on some machines, if you do not have a monitor or keyboard hooked up when it is booted, then you will have to reboot the machine in order to use them.
 
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