[NBLUG/talk] Home Linux Server

[Nat W.]

Hey Guys,

I recently came across an old hp desktop, and I have decided to finally
solve one of the problems my family has had for awhile: No place to back
stuff up to.

So I figured I would install Linux on this server, set up a samba share, all
no problem. But here comes the difficult part, and something I could not
find any answers to. 

You see, I am a college student, and the server is behind a Linksys router
around 250 miles away. So my issue is, what is the best way to set up the
server so I can ssh / ftp into it. (ftp is so my dad can use it from work).
What do I need to change so I can access this server from the internet? I
assume I'll need to open some ports on the router and forward them to the
server and then I need something to deal with the dynamic ip, I've heard
this is possible, but never really found a good answer or implemented it. I
own a domain I could hook up to it, if someone wants to suggest how to go
about that.

Finally, Is this legal? I guess this should really be the first question I
should ask, but where would I find out whether or not I can even put my
server on the net?

Any help or at least a few tutorials to look at, that would be great. I am
at the moment using Ubuntu, and google hasn't turned up much newer than an
article on how to do things with RH8, and the article sucked too :p

Anyway thanks in advance,
/Nat Welch
PseudoWeb.net 

p.s. sorry for being long winded ;)