Episode 02: Finding an Objective
So, I need an objective for my Linux server. The objective is important because there are so many Linux versions (called distros). Some of these Linux distros are good at somethings and not at others. I don’t know enough to give an example… that’s why we’re here, to learn. SO! I need to know what my server will be serving in order to look at what distro would suite me best. Let’s list out things as they pop in my head:
media server
game server
streaming media
website host
network security tools
ad blocking tool
uhhh, I can’t think of anything else. Let’s break them down a bit.
Media Server - This server will hold backups of my pictures and videos. I like this idea as my backups are owned by Microsoft and Google. I pay them to have harddrive space for me… but I have my own hard drive. So, this is a pretty solid pick.
Game Server - This server will host game servers for multiplayer things. Think an always on Minecraft server. Another service you can pay for, or host yourself. I have a family full of gamers and we don’t pay for these game servers, it limits some of our multiplayer events. If I’m hosting my own servers, it opens up a lot of options.
Streaming Media - There’s a tool that you can use to stream media. I haven’t looked into the legality of it, but you can get the files from your collection of DVDs and Blu-rays and have them on the server to watch from. Probably, as long as you aren’t distributing this for money or to an audience outside your house, it’s not violating anything.
Website Host - I pay Square Space to host this website. I could do that from my server instead. But there a quite a few drawbacks. Square Space isn’t just hosting my website, they’re also managing bandwidth and much more importantly, security. If I were to host my website, then learning how to secure it would be a part of this blog. This means all of my security controls would be publicly available knowledge. It just sounds like a bad idea. Square Space is cheaper than Netflix… I think I’ll let them keep it.
Network Security Tools - Ever wonder if your home network is part of a botnet, poised and ready to help launch a DDoS attack on some popular thing? Yeah, me too. A botnet consists of a network of bots. Each bot, someone’s poorly secured computer, waits to hear from a command and control computer. Once the CnC sounds the alarm, the bot will send network requests to a specific service and that service will become unavailable because it’s fielding a bunch of requests from the bots. I remember getting my X-Box One. It was Christmas of… whatever year… I couldn’t use the X-Box because a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Server) attack had been launched against X-Box’s servers. It was a whole day of sad times. So, network security tools would be a neat project to see what is going on on my network.
Ad Blocking Tool - This tool blocks ads at the router level. It does this by knowing which websites do ads and not allowing traffic from those sites. I could also use this to block anything I don’t want my kids going to. Say, for example, they don’t do their chores, now YouTube and Discord are blocked.
So, those are the possible objectives. I think, with the exception of website host, I’ll do them all. But I’ll start with the media server. I really want to get my pictures and videos under my control. So there you have it, we need a Linux distro that works good with media server tools. Now, let’s research the distros to see what those might be. Like, next time…