I am wanting to set up a home server using an old computer, after doing some costs it would work out considerably cheaper than using a hosting service, and although less reliable I feel it would be some good and valuable experience.

I have installed Ubuntu server edition onto my old computer, and have selected to install LAMP and a GUI desktop along with it however I am finding it rather difficult to use due to the very much command line interfaces.

Would it be a security risk to use a pre-made piece of software like XAMPP to open the ports on my computer and run everything from their web application.

Are you behind a router by any chance?

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