Trying for over a month to set up a home server
Hey guys this is my first post on Stackoverflow!

i have been trying to set up a home server to host my personal website for a month now and it just hasn't been working out.

I followed a howtoforge guide called The Perfect Server - with CentOS 6.2 but all it did was tell me what to install, it didn't teach me how to actually administer a server.

My goal is that the computer that i want to turn into a server will host my website, host email (just so i can have a personal email connected to my own domain name), and have a way to log into it so i can access files that i stored on it and transfer them easily (as i plan to develop on a laptop and want to simply upload all the content to the server when i make updates to my website). But at very minimum i really just want to get my website online!

Unfortunately i had some problems, the first of which was resolved relatively quickly, the computer i have planned for the job has the dreaded Realtek ethernet card which does not use the correct drivers so i had to manually set them. Not a huge problem.

The second issue is that i am hosting from home so i can almost be certain i have a dynamic IP, i signed up for zone edit but i dont think i have it properly set up, in any case i think the biggest problem is that i believe my ISP is blocking the common http ports, luckily zone edit has a way to get around that ( i just have to figure out how to get my web server to listen on port 5000 or 6000 or some other uncommon port.

What i really need is some guide that teaches me how to set up a servers and teaches me the different types of servers and actually informs me on how to administer one.

I'm sorry if that sounds like a big request but i am completely new to this stuff and really excited to get my home server up and running!

Side question: what is a good control panel for someone just starting own?

AFte some research a lot of people say that a mail server is a headache, if so then forget about it for now, what i really want to do is get my website online and - if possible - transfer files to the server remotely. But the number 1 importance is a web server. Secondly i have already decided on some stuff over the past month of troubleshooting this. first of all i know i want to use apache2, second i know i want to run it on either centOS, Debian, or Ubuntu server. Third my router does a a DMZ feature but i don't know exactly how to use it properly - as i am still very new to this.

What i really just want is a guide that will help me learn about basic web and file servers and how to run them and make them accessible online but everything i find i seem to run into some kind of trouble with.
Trying for over a month to set up a home server
===

Hey guys this is my first post on Stackoverflow!

i have been trying to set up a home server to host my personal website for a month now and it just hasn't been working out.

I followed a howtoforge guide called The Perfect Server - with CentOS 6.2 but all it did was tell me what to install, it didn't teach me how to actually administer a server.

My goal is that the computer that i want to turn into a server will host my website, host email (just so i can have a personal email connected to my own domain name), and have a way to log into it so i can access files that i stored on it and transfer them easily (as i plan to develop on a laptop and want to simply upload all the content to the server when i make updates to my website). But at very minimum i really just want to get my website online!

Unfortunately i had some problems, the first of which was resolved relatively quickly, the computer i have planned for the job has the dreaded Realtek ethernet card which does not use the correct drivers so i had to manually set them. Not a huge problem.

The second issue is that i am hosting from home so i can almost be certain i have a dynamic IP, i signed up for zone edit but i dont think i have it properly set up, in any case i think the biggest problem is that i believe my ISP is blocking the common http ports, luckily zone edit has a way to get around that ( i just have to figure out how to get my web server to listen on port 5000 or 6000 or some other uncommon port.

What i really need is some guide that teaches me how to set up a servers and teaches me the different types of servers and actually informs me on how to administer one.

I'm sorry if that sounds like a big request but i am completely new to this stuff and really excited to get my home server up and running!

Side question: what is a good control panel for someone just starting own?

AFte some research a lot of people say that a mail server is a headache, if so then forget about it for now, what i really want to do is get my website online and - if possible - transfer files to the server remotely. But the number 1 importance is a web server. Secondly i have already decided on some stuff over the past month of troubleshooting this. first of all i know i want to use apache2, second i know i want to run it on either centOS, Debian, or Ubuntu server. Third my router does a a DMZ feature but i don't know exactly how to use it properly - as i am still very new to this.

What i really just want is a guide that will help me learn about basic web and file servers and how to run them and make them accessible online but everything i find i seem to run into some kind of trouble with.