bladephoenix
Senior member
Hello. I am trying to establish a dedicated web server in my home, to host an online portfolio webpage. I am kind of a newbie at this, and am doing this more or less as an experiment of my own and would appreciate any feedback or advice. I will try to explain briefly what I know so far:
I recently learned of a friend of mine who was able to establish his own domain hosting by rigging a old Pentium 90 to his home network. With that Pentium 90, he installed Linux and was able to use it as an adequate web server.
Also, he was able to make his own router by using a pre-pentium computer (386/486 - not sure). This "router" has no hard-drive - only a motherboard, memory, two network cards (one for input and one for output) and a floppy drive from which the system boots from (no keyboard or monitor was necessary either once everything was setup). The DSL modem is hooked up to this "router", which in turn is hooked up to a hub, where it then branches off to all his computers (the web server with Linux, and his Cyrix computer with Windows 2KPro). Using this method he was able to make a fully programable router-like setup. The other advantages were that he was able to immune his network to Windows-based virus attacks since the gateway was a linux based machine, and was able to use fully open-source and free networking software.
I wanted to do something like this, so I am emulating this technique. I recently aquired a 486 machine at a garage sale for $1.50 to act as a router, however, he mentioned that buying a Penium 90 might not be adequate for my web server (I will be having some streaming video for my demo reel). My question is what kind of computer should I buy that would be adequate for streaming video? (I am trying to keep everything within $15 - $25). I already have 2 extra networking cards and a hub. Are there any issues that I should be aware of with this setup? Thanks in advance for any help.
I recently learned of a friend of mine who was able to establish his own domain hosting by rigging a old Pentium 90 to his home network. With that Pentium 90, he installed Linux and was able to use it as an adequate web server.
Also, he was able to make his own router by using a pre-pentium computer (386/486 - not sure). This "router" has no hard-drive - only a motherboard, memory, two network cards (one for input and one for output) and a floppy drive from which the system boots from (no keyboard or monitor was necessary either once everything was setup). The DSL modem is hooked up to this "router", which in turn is hooked up to a hub, where it then branches off to all his computers (the web server with Linux, and his Cyrix computer with Windows 2KPro). Using this method he was able to make a fully programable router-like setup. The other advantages were that he was able to immune his network to Windows-based virus attacks since the gateway was a linux based machine, and was able to use fully open-source and free networking software.
I wanted to do something like this, so I am emulating this technique. I recently aquired a 486 machine at a garage sale for $1.50 to act as a router, however, he mentioned that buying a Penium 90 might not be adequate for my web server (I will be having some streaming video for my demo reel). My question is what kind of computer should I buy that would be adequate for streaming video? (I am trying to keep everything within $15 - $25). I already have 2 extra networking cards and a hub. Are there any issues that I should be aware of with this setup? Thanks in advance for any help.
