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Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
An Initial Internet-Ready
Environment
One of Linux’s great traits is its flexibility. Commercial companies such as Cisco
have hidden Linux under very simple interfaces to make its Linksys routers and other
products user-friendly. We can do that, too.
ISPConfig (http://ispconfig.org), a user-friendly Linux project under a free software
(BSD) license, allows us to build a multifunctional, working Internet server from a
single downloadable application. Once we install it, we will have a tool that helps us
to configure and easily maintain a server that allows us to manage web sites; provide
domain name services; perform email and file transfers; and add users, administra-
tors, and others who can access the system for various administrative tasks. Oh, and
did we mention we can do all those administration tasks from a graphical interface?
We selected ISPConfig primarily because it allows us to deploy powerful server
applications on Linux without sacrificing any power or flexibility. Furthermore:
• ISPConfig uses standard daemons that come with Linux distributions. We’ll use
Apache for serving web sites, Postfix for email, ProFTPD for FTP, BIND for
DNS, and MySQL as the backend database.
• Installation of ISPConfig automatically configures the various server components.
• The packages included in ISPConfig work with most available distributions of
Linux.
• Standard packages from the ...