More website questions.

[JeffD78b]

Okay, I'm gonna give you the whole story here and you can tell me how you'd go about doing it.

The company my mother-in-law works for has a couple of websites. These websites are being hosted by an IPP that keeps screwing things up for them. Her boss decided to get a DSL and host them himself. We need to know how to go about changing these websites from the old IPP over to the computer on the DSL. Here's what he wants:

1. to host the sites himself, off of one computer.
2. to be able to receive e-mail at his dot com address and use Outlook to do it.
3. have a secured order form for credit card orders

We've already got the old site, and he did specify that he wanted a static IP address when he ordered the DSL.

I want to know what would be the best way to host the site. Preferably using Win98, as I know nothing about Linux, but I'm willing to use linux just because I know it's better.

I want to know what webserver software would work the best for this. Would Microsoft Personal Web Server be able to handle it, or would I need to use something else?

Next on my list would be the email portion of this. We want to be able to receive email at the same dot com as the website. We also want to use Outlook to do it. Tell me how?

Lastly would be the secure order form. How is this done?

I'm learning all of this as I go, so if you could email me with your recommendations and whatever hardware/software I might need, I'd really appreciate it.

P.S. Sorry. Didn't realize I was gonna write a book.

[Red Rage]

Use Linux if you got the time.. You can use 98 but I wouldn't suggest it.

Not matter what OS you choose I would use Apache (http://www.apache.org) for the Web Server software. there is a win32 port.

for the email.. I would use sendmail on linux mainly cause its so easy to setup but its not as secure as some others. for Win32 i'd prolly use Imail from IP Switch (http://www.ipswitch.com) its not perfect but easy.

for the domain stuffs.. if you got multipledomains you want to move to the machine I would use My Domain (http://www.mydomain.com) to have the domains redirected to a webdirectory on your machine (ip address) again not perfect but easy and cheaper than buy'n an IP for each domain. I'm not sure how the email would work, maybe an MX record change?

If your doing shopping carts i'd suggest a php/mysql database, its fairly easy to pick up I got some links HERE (http://www.webmasterz.org/howto.shtml) that may help you learn in a bit.

I'm not sure about the Secure server, I know you need a certificate but not exactly sure how that works, I think you can go directly through a 3rd party such as I Bill (http://www.ibill.com) but you will want to look into that.

over all i'd go with linux, in your case prolly Red Hat (which is free to download since you got DSL that shoudln't take too long a CDR is a must though) I'd also get the Red Hat 6.2 bible decent book, and Maximum Secruity (i think)

I setup a major web site running on Red hat 6.2 I haven't checked it in a while but it was getting thousands of hits/day plus the main portion of the site is the UBB (just like this board) running on a P133 with no problems at all, knock on wood.