What to do with a '486???

[Poof]

... Or a P120...?

Basically, old but still functional machines that have run RC5 but would take longer than forever with OGR...

Both running Linux - one gnulibc5 (the 486) and the other gnulibc6 (the P120).

I already have a sparc IPX on SETI with 15 day WUs but I know it would be far worse on the 486 although the P120 might not be too bad... I already run G@H on faster machines and they are too slow for F@H.

Suggestions?
(waits for ECCp people to come out... )

 

[Migroo]

Have you got a hardware firewall/router?

Try Smoothwall. It turns your machine into a hardened internet firewall security device (ie: your machine becomes a SmoothWall and you cannot use it as anything else). I use an old P166 and it works fine supporting an office of 10 machines (and associated traffic). SmoothWall is based upon Red Hat and is free for the GPL version. Security and performance compares to $3000 Cisco machines.

You put the machine between the internet and your network. You need a NIC card in and a NIC card out, so 2 for a normal config.

I've found this very useful and it sorts out what to do with a machine

 

[deerslayer]

I have a P133 that does seti WU's anywhere from just over 2 days to over 4 days. It varies a lot and is very slow, but every little bit helps

 

[Poof]

Migroo sweety - I have a FreeSCO firewall/router already running on my P200MMX (also a former RC5 cracker) and that machine also has Red Hat 5.2 on it. I have 14 machines behind that box... I want to eventually stick a 3rd NIC in there and route between my DSL and Cable connections but haven't had time to do it... what with the gardening season still going and whatnot... heh heh

LyNx01 - I was thinking of maybe restarting up SETI on the P120, but I'll see.... It's an adorable little IBM Thinkpad running Peanut Linux.

 

[nagger]

Originally posted by: Poof
... Or a P120...?

Basically, old but still functional machines that have run RC5 but would take longer than forever with OGR...

Both running Linux - one gnulibc5 (the 486) and the other gnulibc6 (the P120).

I already have a sparc IPX on SETI with 15 day WUs but I know it would be far worse on the 486 although the P120 might not be too bad... I already run G@H on faster machines and they are too slow for F@H.

Suggestions?
(waits for ECCp people to come out... )

Poof,

quoting from the ECCp-109 site:

Note: The basic units of work are Distinguished Points (DP)
One DP represents approximately 52 minutes of work on a PII 400Mhz.

So you'll probably get >10 DP's a day from both machines.

 

[Poof]

Thanks nagger - been going through your FAQ link.

Any project that explicitly lists a '486 is definitely helpful... I'm hoping that the client is not library-specific as alot of projects are (ie., requiring gnulibc 2.x and higher, etc, although my P120 is somewhat okay in that respect).

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Migroo
Have you got a hardware firewall/router?

Try Smoothwall. It turns your machine into a hardened internet firewall security device (ie: your machine becomes a SmoothWall and you cannot use it as anything else). I use an old P166 and it works fine supporting an office of 10 machines (and associated traffic). SmoothWall is based upon Red Hat and is free for the GPL version. Security and performance compares to $3000 Cisco machines.

You put the machine between the internet and your network. You need a NIC card in and a NIC card out, so 2 for a normal config.

I've found this very useful and it sorts out what to do with a machine

Now that is cool thanks!

 

[nagger]

Originally posted by: Poof
Thanks nagger - been going through your FAQ link.

Any project that explicitly lists a '486 is definitely helpful... I'm hoping that the client is not library-specific as alot of projects are (ie., requiring gnulibc 2.x and higher, etc, although my P120 is somewhat okay in that respect).

Poof,

You can also check out MereMortal's ECCp Repository for one of the fastest linux clients around (link)

 

[onebadv6]

Well if you can believe it I have my setiq running on my 468 dx66 using win95.

46 days up with no problem sofar:Q More stable than I thought it would be.

anyway my 2 cents

 

[Migroo]

:Q sweety??

OK Poof, no worries then FreeSCO is great too. Youre probably better off sticking with that as I dont know if SmoothWall can 'do' two 'red' connections. Thats an interesting one.

 

[RaySun2Be]

*sigh*

So many useful answers! :Q

All I was going to suggest was to create a "How Far can you Fling This Thing" raffle contest.

Sell chances to fling for $1.00, and split the pot with the person who can fling it the farthest. Say 60/40 split between you/winner?

Proceeds could be used for additions to the garden, upgrades to the fleet, or parts for the home theatre.

 

[deerslayer]

Originally posted by: RaySun2Be
*sigh*

So many useful answers! :Q

All I was going to suggest was to create a "How Far can you Fling This Thing" raffle contest.

Sell chances to fling for $1.00, and split the pot with the person who can fling it the farthest. Say 60/40 split between you/winner?

Proceeds could be used for additions to the garden, upgrades to the fleet, or parts for the home theatre.

LMAO. That is much more creative than my thoughts on the subject.

 

[Poof]

LOL you guys!!!!

I have to read up on this ECCp. For the time being, I have both doing OGR until I download a client and see what the deal is. I use my little Thinkpad to run ntop on my network and my 486 does archive duties. I'm gonna get as much life outta these boxen as I can! LOL

Mr. Ray - if I fling the '486, it will surely register on the Richter scale whereever it hits! :Q

 

[RaySun2Be]

Mr. Ray - if I fling the '486, it will surely register on the Richter scale whereever it hits!

All the better to draw a bigger crowd!

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: Migroo
:Q sweety??

Tina, i thought i was your sweety



<---- Going off in a mood now

 

[Poof]

LOL@Ray!!!

And Confused - you're ma baby...

(/me thinks she needs to quit while she's ahead... )

 

[JWMiddleton]

Poof, Ray's idea was better than mine as I was going to suggest a door stop! Possibly the mouse, KB and a few other parts could be used with another setup!

 

[Poof]

Originally posted by: JWMiddleton
Poof, Ray's idea was better than mine as I was going to suggest a door stop! Possibly the mouse, KB and a few other parts could be used with another setup!

Buh...buh...buh... He's only 10 years old and still has life in him I tell ya! He DOES!!! :Q :Q :Q

 

[Migroo]

I'm quite amazed that a machine that has been cracking all its life is still going - either that or it must have a lot in new parts!

Oldest machine here is my P166 Smoothwall. It would have been a P150, but its PSU died and it was a special model (Case doesnt accept 'normal' PSUs and I cant get a replacement older one!) so the mobo/cpu is now a Clients smoothwall in another case

I never had a 486!

 

[Poof]

Originally posted by: Migroo
I'm quite amazed that a machine that has been cracking all its life is still going - either that or it must have a lot in new parts!

It was originally a '486 DX33 with 4MB RAM, Radioshack special 1/3rd X (LOL ) CDROM, & 80MB HD, and I found an old Cyrix DX100 CPU to swap into it. I also upgraded its hard drive to 4gig, gave it a new 40x CDROM, took it from 4MB RAM to 32MB, but left the 1MB Sigma VGA Legend video card in it....

Oldest machine here is my P166 Smoothwall. It would have been a P150, but its PSU died and it was a special model (Case doesnt accept 'normal' PSUs and I cant get a replacement older one!) so the mobo/cpu is now a Clients smoothwall in another case

I never had a 486!

Well... 'cause when these came out, you were a little 'un. My '286 (bought in 1988 and was upgraded with a 65MB hard card and 768K RAM) is up in my closet and still works... The beauty of Linux is that this old hardware can have new life with a responsiveness unheard of if it had windoze...

And onebadev6 - forgot to address your suggestion - I have my Setiqueue running on my dual Xeon III 500, but I have a friend who was also running Setiqueue on a '486 (a notebook) with 95.

[EDIT: The really wild thing is that this video card is still working - it was an upgrade card for the 286 believe it or not and ran just fine as a 16bit card in the 286's 8bit slot. The 286 is a Tandy 1000TL and didn't have any 16bit ISA slots... ]

 

[Confused]

Geez the oldest PC bits i have is K6-233MHz! :Q


Poof, i was just a littleun when you got your 286 i was just 4 :Q

And Confused - you're ma baby...

 

[Migroo]

Hehehe I was 5 Garry

 

[nagger]

What puter did I have in 1988?

Probably still had a Amstrad PC1512 (specs) with 1512 Kb of Ram and a 20 Mb HD that my father later bought.

I still have the MS DOS 3.3 5.1/2 disks.

Then we got a EPSON EL-IIe (Equity IIe in the states)

and we moved on to a EPSON AX-3s (Equity 386SX/20 PLUS in the states)

then we got a EPSON ActionTower 5000 (specs) and that was the end of brand computers in the Alves household

 

[Poof]

Hee hee... in '88 I was.... ummm.... ummm...... :Q

Oh yeah... outta college and had been working about 5 years...

<<Probably still had a Amstrad PC1512>>

OMG... The director of our office bought 8 of those from Best Buy for us back then... :Q LOL. No cooling fans in them and the things eventually fried the hard drive... But they were 'puters... We were running Lotus 1-2-3 on DOS 3.2, along with Wordperfect 5.0...

 

[Poof]

By the way, here is an older pic of my '486 (on the left) and my P200MMX (on the right) which is my firewall. This was taken before some 15 other machines invaded my space....