[TriLUG] Yay! A Linux content management system related question.

[Douglas Ward]

I am hosting web/e-mail solutions for about 70 churches now that are
affiliated with us through work.  Here's what I do:

Servers - Everything is hosted on Mandriva 2007 servers.  I'd like to switch
to ubuntu server but don't have the time.  These work so I'm leaving them
alone.

E-mail - We have a mailscanner/postfix/spamassassin/clamav/bitdefender
gateway server that handles all of the spam filtering for our main office,
14 remote offices (2-3 people each) and these individual churches.  It is a
maintenance item so I run it along with my main work duties.  This is an
effective solution but would be a lot for volunteers to maintain.  We host
some mailboxes with postfix and squirrelmail (one domain) and Surgemail (
http://www.netwinsite.com) for multiple domains.  Surgemail is very good
with multiple domains (even though you only are working with one) and has an
excellent web based administration console.  This would be easier to teach
than postfix (IMO).

Web hosting - Mandriva/apache/mysql.  We are starting to host some cms sites
using Joomla (http://www.joomla.org).  I haven't started learning Joomla
personally but the people that use it generally love it.

Firewall - For smaller shops I usually buy a Netgear firewall solution from
some place like Best Buy.  I could build something in Linux but the Netgear
solution is cheap and easy.

Distro - I got started building my web empire with Mandriva.  Now that I
know more about Linux if I could go back I would go with ubuntu server.
Just my personal preference.  Any distribution will work about the same.  I
set up cron jobs to update the servers every night and let them run.  They
tend to stay up for hundreds of days in a row while my Windows web servers
have to be rebooted every second Tuesday of the month.  :)

I would be happy to discuss this in more detail off list if necessary.  Hope
this helps!

On 3/6/07, OlsonE at aosa.army.mil <OlsonE at aosa.army.mil> wrote:
>
> Here we go:
>
> I've decided to help a non-profit (Church), re-vamp their
> website/infrastructure. Here's what I'm searching for:
>
> - Web Content Mangment system that's easy for them to maintain.
> - Web Site (that's both easy to move/add/change).
> - Mail (possibly web) -- and d-e-f-i-n-a-t-e-l-y spam filtering. After
> all, there's no need for pr0n e-mails to be hitting the pastor's mailbox
> ;).
> - Blogging (it'd be great to have the capability for people out doing
> missionary work to be able to blog about their experiences).
> - Firewall (they only need web/ftp/smtp).
>
> ...obviously Windows will not cut it here because of the cost, and I'd
> like to have something where I could spend an hour or two with someone
> ...and they could run with it. (They are computer savvy -- just not too
> much with web stuff).
>
> ...distro recommendations would be great too. (As I KNOW Gentoo is going
> to be way too much for them to maintain / manage).
> --
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