Preface

This guide is designed as a basic introduction to Linux as a network server. Most versions of Linux that are optimized to be network servers have a graphical interface much like Windows. However, it is important to be proficient in using the command line interface. Therefore, this guide will focus entirely on Linux at the command line.

This guide primarily focuses on getting a "bare bones" system running. The procedures and configurations attempt to use the minimum steps required to make the system perform a given function. Accordingly, the examples used in this guide leave out many items you may find in other examples. This is because those items are not critical and cause confusion to the beginner.

This guide begins with an introduction to Linux and a technical overview. This is because such information is hard to find in a consolidated form. The rest of the guide is basic information on how commands work and how to configure certain services.