Newbie needs input on web-enabled control system

[ninensei]

I desperately need some advice and opinions. I am trying to put together a small Linux-based system that will allow me to remotely monitor temperature and control some lights in my house. The lights and the temperature probe will interface with the computer through a custom USB device I build. I want to connect to the system using a modem (DSL would be preferable, but that is not a possibility right now). The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about Linux/Unix (sad to say since I’ve been a programmer for over 20 years). I’m so green that I would fit right into a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Well, I guess it’s not that bad since I just downloaded and installed Red Hat on my P500. But, man, where do I go from here?

Actually, I have been reading a lot about Linux over the past few days, so I am pretty sure what I want to do can be done. My initial analysis of the project looks something like this…

Linux on an x86 platform with...
..USB support (for the custom USB I/O device that will collect temp and control lights)
..Secure Apache (or other) server (for displaying the temperature history and to adjust lights)
..Small custom program & database (for data collection, web page creation support, lighting control, etc…)
..SSH (for remote management of the control software, web pages, etc…)
..email client (for sending me an email if temperature goes too high)
..Dial out on demand (for connecting to the internet via modem when an email needs to be sent)
..Remote access (so I can call in and check on or maintain the system)
..no requirement for a display, keyboard or mouse

Is this possible? Is this easy? Is this secure? Is this embedded? I really have no clue where to go from here. The main thing is that 1) it is secured, 2) I can view and control the I/O via a web page, 3) I can get into the system to maintain it remotely, 4) it can connect to an ISP by itself if it needs to send me a message, and 5) I can dial into it if it is not already connected to the Internet.

I’m guessing that my first step will be to try and configure a system with the web server and SSH. I’m not worried about hardware constraints (memory or storage). But I have read that, for security reasons, it is important to only have items available in the installation that are necessary for operation, and I don’t think I need much. How does one go about removing all of this stuff? (Don’t need SCSI, don’t need scanners, don’t need printers, don’t need multimedia, etc…)

Anyway, I know that there is a long road ahead. Any comments, concerns, questions, opinions or suggestions will be appreciated. If I haven’t been specific enough about an area, let me know.

Steve

[mdwatts]

I don't know of any myself, so these are only search results and searching suggestions.

Here is one for 'light control' (http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=light+control&section=projects).

You can try yourself at http://freshmeat.net for i.e.

remote management

remote web management

etc.

HTH's

[ninensei]

I know I was a little obtuse in what I am trying to do. The problem was (is) that I am just too new at this to know my needs. However, since writing the email, I've installed Red Hat, configured the firewall, got apache to work with authentication and attended a user's group meeting on the configuration and use of SSH and VNC. So, things are looking much better now. I figure I'll write my control application in Kylix (I'm right at home with Delphi) and drop the USB in favor of using a comm port to control all the external stuff. Now If I can just figure out the best way to dynamically build user-defined graphics of the data (such as pie chars and time lines) for presentation on the web page, I'll be set.

[Thorin]

To turn off SCSI support, printer support etc. you'll need to compile a new kernel. If you have no idea how to compile a kernel, look at some of the NHF's here http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Compiling_Kernels

You can download the kernel source tarballs from www.kernel.org