Topic: New User

[Tez]

Hi all,

I like the look of e-smith and feel that it might be a good inclusion to my home/office network.

There are a few things that I would like to find out before I download and install it on a system.

The first and i guess tha most important is the specs of the system that it will be installed on.

I am looking to install it on a P133 with 64mb RAM, 1gig HD (also have a 20gig HD for storage and this drive would be the one I would want access to for FTP and file sharing)

What are the minimum and recommended specs?

Can the FTP be setup so I can access other computers on the network (mapping drives etc?)

Is the process of installing and partitioning new hard drives a fairly simple one? Are there any restrictions when partioning? (Like with MS-DOS?)

There may be more questins but that's it for now.

Thanks in advance

Tez

[Tez]

Also forgot to ask about the Firewall.

How complicated is it for a beginer to configure? I would also want to run games from the network over the internet and chat programs like MSN and ICQ.

I am connected to the internet via a cable modem

[Peter]

This system is very good just jump in and have a go. The computer you intend to use will be OK The fire wall will setup for you. Once you have installed then ask questions as required

Peter

[Klas]

The system i VERY easy and therefore very general i config. I works perfectly as Firewall, webserver, ftp-server, fileserver for internal network etc...

Since it is intended to be easy and robust, the "easy" interface does not contain as much tools to do the things you request. Map drives, opening specific ports etc will require more knowledge of Linux.

BUT, i say: Try It. I have used it for quite a while and i am satisfied. It is an easy and quick installation so you don't have to spend hours just to try it out.

/Klas

[Klas]

By the way. A P133, 64Mb, 1GB+20GB will work just fine. Make sure you have PCI-network card(s)

I have a 486/120, 64MB, 600mb+4GB server which work perfectly.

Remember that E-smith does not detect second HDD (at least not my v4.0) and will therefore set up the system with only one HDD. After Install, you will have to backup system, mount the 20GB in /HOME, and the restore the backup.

/Klas

[Tez]

Thank you for your advice!

I will be setting it up shortly and I guess you will see more of me in this forum as I learn and develope.

I have been running Serv-U FTP on Win 98 and feel that I need to step into the world of linux.

Looking forward the begining )

[Patrick Basile]

Tez,

I am a 'new user' as well - and HIGHLY recommend e-smith so far based on my experience this past week.

1.  The folks in these forums have been VERY helpful in telling me or pointing me to fixes for the few things I have had trouble with.  I agree with Klas - it's so simple to setup that you should just jump in and try it.

2.  Your hardware will be fine.  I'm running e-smith 4.1.2 on an ancient Zeos P-90 (although I did put a WinChip in it running at 200mhz) circa 1994, 96mb RAM, two 20gig hard drives in a software RAID1 setup, 2 PCI Realtek 8139 nics, and a PCI 16mb nVidia based TNT2 video card (don't really need since there's no X running).  I had NO problems during installation - all the equipment was found and worked fine the very first time.

Hope you have the same good fortune I did - if not, the folks here will be able to help out.  I think you will be very surprised with e-smith....I know I have been!

Regards,
Patrick

[Confucius]

Hi,

Alltho I LOVE e·Smith Server I think I have to add a few comments to your questions.

The mapping to other machines is a DUNNO to me...

The other matters you have to be aware of are the usage of MSM and ICQ.

ICQ 99a/b, whatever can be used without any trouble.
When you look into the forum here you'll see that this comes up a lot and not only in e·Smith, also other firewall-related software distro's suffer from the problem that there is no proper MASQ unit for the newest ICQ 2000 a/b. I guess some people (or a bunch) are working hard on this problem. ICQ 2000 will function but has limitations. It seems possible to use the basic features but real-time chat and file-receive seem to be impossible. For those things there can be found workarounds here.

MSM suffers almost from the same problem. Filetransfers seem to be impossible (never made it a test-project tho) and you surely can't use the webphone-module without fiddling in the firewall and here you'll discover the same problem again in ICQ.

To solve these issues u could try SOCKS5 server. At work I installed it (as a Linux Newbie) and it was a big pain in the butt. I can't test it there because I still didn't put the machine in the role of firewall/internet connection but it seems to work fine.

And GAMES you said ???? I can remember something called 'Frogger', played it on a Commodore 64. Are there more games now ? (sorry, I play people and talk serious to computers

BUT... to round all up now. Start on e·Smith, enjoy all features and forget about Bill please... u can always say that e·Smith wasn't the easiest way but at least you did all yourself and it doesn't have to cost you anything more as some time.

Goodluck...

[Del]

I am also a new user, I installed e-smith on a p3-500 with a 6.4 HDD, I had some problems getting the modem working, but the people on this site helped me sort it out I still haven't been brave enough to try email and web sharing yet as I now feel that the time as come to build a better spec machine (see 32 gig posting) and switch off my NT4 server before I have to restart it again! I might consider just adding a second HDD to my existing e-smith server if any one can tell me how to get it reconised and to use it for all my saved files (personal user folder etc.)
So go on and install it if nothing else it makes a fine robust and reliable fileserver.
Del