The goal of this tutorial is to set up a Unix-type Server including functionality for email and web presence. Other functionalities could easily be added (such as file serving, media streaming etc.). As an added bonus, IPv6 usage is configured besides classic IPv4 connectivity.
For the tutorial, we put it up within a virtual machine, but the same steps could of course be made on a physical machine (and often is, for a home server). An alternative could be to put the different functionalities into different VMs or even physical machines - the choice entirely depends on the specific use cases.
The choice for Linux Debian / Ubuntu is derived from both the wide usage of Ubuntu (a Debian derivate) and the ease of use of the Debian package management system - as well as the author's personal preference.
You should have basic experience with Linux, including command-line usage and how to use an editor.
The recommendation for the test VM is to use a virtual disk of around 4GB - but if you want to make more use of it (such as running a webserver containing a larger picture or even video gallery), you'll want to dimension accordingly. Make sure you have sufficient disk space available.
Please install VirtualBox (exists for usual OSs incl. Windows and MacOS) before the tutorial. If you already have a different virtualisation solution installed, you can use that instead - provided you can create a new VM in there (i.e. VMWare Player won't do, VMWare Server or Workstation is ok).
You'll want to check out the parts in the Networking chapter about SixXs. You MUST get your SixXs account and request at least a tunnel - and do that several days at least before the tutorial! This is described in the network part, under IPv6.
For the tutorial, please open this website in a webbrowser on your host machine. Read up and follow the instructions as portrayed.
Once the basic installation and configuration of the network is done (IPv4 static IP), it is quickest to connect via SSH from your host, and copy/paste instructions from the tutorial.