Brett Glass to the Rescue: Roll Your Own SOHO E-Mail and Web Server?

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Roll Your Own SOHO E-Mail and Web Server?

Q: My wife has a small home-based business for which I would like to set up a Web server and e-mail server. We have a very small budget (almost none) and older computer systems (100 MHz 486es) to work with. After reading your tip titled Instant Web Server.... Well, Almost, I learned that FreeBSD and Apache are excellent choices for a Web server, but
there was no mention of e-mail capability. What would you recommend? Is a home setup a reasonable undertaking, or should I simply pay for these services to be hosted by another company?

Errol Jones

A: Your choice between setting up your own small office/home office (SOHO) server and "outsourcing" your Internet facilities should hinge on the types of services you intend to offer and the amount of bandwidth you require for all of your needs. It will also depend on the rates at which you can obtain full-time Internet access in your area.

Running your own Web and e-mail server requires 24 hour Internet access. Therefore, unless your business already requires such access for other reasons, the first thing you should do is research the price of continuous Internet access at 128Kbps or more. (This is the bare minimum for a Web site; you'll need greater bandwidth if traffic is heavy.) If the cost is prohibitive, it is probably best to shop around for an ISP that will host your Web pages, provide you with a home for a domain name or two, and handle your mail. You can log in via a part-time, flat rate modem connection to manage things.

On the other hand, if the cost of connectivity is within reach and you're willing to take on the task of managing your own server, you'll have much more control. For example, you'll be able to create and destroy e-mail addresses at will, run elaborate CGI scripts on your Web server (many ISPs won't let you run them on their hardware), run mailing lists, and more. Fast full-time access also means better surfing when you go out to access the Web.

As for hardware and software: a 100 MHz 486 is more than sufficient to act as a Web and e-mail server until your business grows quite large. FreeBSD, or in fact any version of UNIX, has e-mail built in... in the form of the sendmail program. In fact, because it's truly the operating system of the Internet, UNIX has useful e-mail utilities than you can shake a stick at -- including the ubiquitous vacation auto-responder and the Majordomo mailing list management program.

In short, as is increasingly true in this age of information, the operating system, the hardware, and the software are secondary to the most important resource: connectivity. Get this item squared away first, and the rest will follow.