Help with old 486 and floppy stuff!

[y00ycdz]

I bought 2 old 486 computers in the last 2 days to use as firewalls.

I have sitting around 4 floppy drives (plus a 5th from my computer)

I also have sitting around about 10 floppy cables of various sizes and various types because some have different pins holes off..

Anyway, both 486 have problems with the floppy, I do not know if BOTH somehow have non-working floppy connections, but both boot up and give the world-famous message "non system disk, ...." and will not boot my floppy drives.

I've taken both computers and have tried almost every combination with each floppy and cable to work and still get the non-system disk (its NOT THE DISK, i have tried the disk and 2 others in my own WORKING computer)

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, am i doing something wrong? Are old 486's and new computers different for floppy stuff? Should I be using a special floppy cable? etc..etc... basically WHY THE !@$!@@! ISNT THIS WORKING!

Sorry getting very fustrated since both computers were bought from 2 different people and are totally set up differently. 1 was a 33mhz and the second is a 100 mhz....

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
-y00yCDz

 

[Redwingsguy]

could be you need to format the hdd, forgot what type it was, but i remember sticking a fat32 formatted into my 486 and it just wouldnt work. and check your bios to make sure floppy is booted first

 

[LordUnum]

Have you checked all the cables in another, perhaps more modern computer? Have you tried a floppy cable (known to be working) from a modern computer in the 486's?

I know that some of the 15-20 or so 486 (none PS/2 or proprietary, thank God! ) mobos I was given awhile back (from which I formed my router/firewall) did not have integrated I/O controllers (floppy, IDE, serial/parallel ports, etc.). An I/O card had to be inserted into one of the ISA slots, to which you'd connect the IDE, floppy cables, and junk. Does either 486 have an integrated controller, or do you connect the cables to a card residing in an ISA slot? Ensure that any I/O card is tight in its slot. Failing that, if either lacks an integrated controller, try replacing the I/O card with another spare (I have a bunch, myself).

When you succeed in getting either, or both computers going (yes, I'm being positive for ya ), may I suggest the NetBSD Firewall Project? No doubt, it is the easiest firewall to setup, as you just have to download the floppy images, write them, and boot said 486 off of the floppy, and you're off with very minimal interaction. Once you're through, stuff the box into a closet, or in a basement if you wish! It'll all be fine.

The web site above leads you through installing the firewall, and configuring other computers to access the 'net through the 486 box step-by-step. Really simple stuff. I'd recommend, of course, (if you do not already know some) learning a little Unix, and learn how to tune ipnat, and ipfilter to your liking. The defaults are perfect, though, if you do not intend to run a server behind the firewall. EASY!

Good luck!

 

[y00ycdz]

Hey guys thanks for the replys, both hds are formated, before i formated them both computers booted up into 1) Win3.1 and 2) Win95.

1 computer does have the I/O card and since the harddrive worked i didn't think it was that, and anyway it was a 33mhz piece of junk, the kb was really sticky (from soda or something and since it was the only AT kb i had, i had to use it)

I junked that 33mhz

I am currently trying to get this 100mhz to work. We (a friend of mine and me) got the computer to recongize a floppy drive, but then it still spit out non system disk.

Still in the process of doing it. Also this 100mhz has everything onboard and its ps/2, its not really really old...but still old.

I will update later.
-y00yCDz

 

[boyz]

why do you need 2 486 for fire wall, you could have use other kinds of firewall, hardware and software.

 

[y00ycdz]

I only need 1, i bought the 2nd one for $10 because i couldnt get the first one i bought to work, I only really need 1.

Also i'm not using it as JUST a firewall. It will have many uses.

Firewall, dsl server, web server (maybe), ftp server (maybe) and will also let me login to it and then login to my main system without them being vulnerable to the net by themselfs...also IP masquerading maybe...I really do not know everything i'll be doing with this just yet, but hopefully many uses.

Later!
-y00yCDz