A few questions about Private Servers

I originally (and embarrassingly) posted this in the wrong subsection so here's to round 2...

Hello All,

I'm pretty new to most of the information regarding building private servers but have encountered some problems someone might be able to help me, and possibly others, out with.

Issue #1. Trying to add new items/adjust drop tables/ pretty much anything major requires editing the server.sln that seems to be missing from my files. I'm well aware of how to go about finding it (I am attempting to use Visual Studio 2013) but any searches for the file come up empty. I'm currently running KrazyServer .6_2(pretty outdated I think) and can keep the server up and running and perform some basic cool stuff but can't make any major developments without locating the server.sln. Wiping everything/reinstalling hasn't worked to fix the issue so I'm wondering if there's something else I'm missing.

Issue #2. This isn't much of an issue and more of an inquiry about the Phoenix and other source codes that are being popularly uploaded here. Are these similar to new builds being released with updated resources or something else entirely (I'm not too interested in setting up multiplayer servers yet). Is integrating this information into my current server a difficult process to understand for beginners? Also could "updating" my private server resolve my issue of the missing server.sln file.

Other than that I believe I have a good understanding of the process of building a private server/ integrating my own items/enemies/classes, but all of that is fruitless without the server.sln

Any help would be appreciated and tell me if I need to be more specific or left out some crucial details. (I've been google searching a few days with no results)