Re: [aclug-L] Setting up my own server...

[Carl D Cravens <raven@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 25 May 1999, Jeff wrote:
> > - My own news server.
> 
> !!
> Do you have massive amounts of bandwidth and disk space?
> Do you really want a news server, or just access to news?
> Look into inn. Also, "Managing Usenet" by O'Reilly.

Running a news server doesn't mean getting a full feed, or even a
substantial feed.  It doesn't require massive amounts of bandwidth or disk
space if all you want is a handful of newsgroups.  And running your own
server for just a few newsgroups makes sense if you want to give a lot of
employees news access without having to give them access to a news server
outside of your network.  (News access to a local server is often a lot
better than news access through a firewall or otherwise remotedly
located.)  I would argue that Cnews is preferable to INN for smaller
sites.  (And would recommend Leafnode if it didn't have some quirks.) 

That said, news, as well as many of the other things desired here, isn't a
trivial thing to set up.  I'm a professional Unix administrator and I
still find doing these things (DNS, Apache, Sendmail, FTP, News) for my
home server a pain.  Internet security alone is enough of a headache.

These services really aren't something to mess with without good manuals,
like the O'Reilly books.  I have the books for all the above services
except FTP... something like 4,000 pages of material, much of it rather
tedious to wade through. 

Am I saying "leave this to the professionals?"  No... I'm saying, "Be
prepared to become one of the professionals."   You don't fully grasp
the complexity of the situation until you feel overwhelmed by it.  :)

--
Carl (raven@xxxxxxxxxxx)