A bunch of dedicated server questions

[CarbonCopy]

Not sure where else to post this, and since PHP Freaks is my favorite forum, I wanted to ask you guys. I just bought a dedicated server with iweb.com, and I have no experience with dedicated servers.

 

I am currently on a shared server with bluehost.com, who I really wouldn't reccomend to anyone that cares about uptime. My website is down way to often. So I've been looking for a dedicated server, in no real hurry, until bluehost suspended my account for violation of their terms of service. I host a lot of websites, as I own a web design company and I host my client's sites. I also host my friends site, and one of them is a magic forum. My friend posted some guy's personal information in an attempt to scare him away, as nobody liked him, and the guy got pissed and called my host. Although I've fixed the issue, all my websites displayed a "Your account has been suspended for a violation of the terms of service" message, which is bad for business.

 

Anyway, back to the dedicated server. I bought the package with CentOS 5 x64 and SSH only. No other services. I was wondering what I should install other than Apache, MySQL, PHP 4/5, Perl, Ruby on Rails. I want POP3 and IMAP access, FTP and FTPS support. And I want it super secure.

 

I have setup my own development server on linux before, so I know how to edit the httpd.conf file and vhosts file to add domains and subdomains, but how would I point domains now? Register with some 3rd party, and just set it to point to the given ip address?

 

Any help or tips about anything involving a dedicated server is appreciated, mainly security though, as my websites tend to insult a few people, and could be a target.

 

Thanks

 

-Carbon Copy

 

 

EDIT: 1 other very important question. I have 30 domains, so do I have to transfer them to a domain registration company, not iweb, and if so, what are some good domain registration sites with good features?