What to do with this old 200 Mhz computer........

[bullion416]

I got bored today so I went to work on my old stripped for parts IBM Aptiva computer (I formatted it and loaded win 98 SE). It is only missing an ethernet card and sound card (the sound card I will probably do without). I was looking for ways to put this old computer to use.....like maybe a server of some sort. To give you an idea of what I am working with..... 200 Mhz Pentium 1 80 mb of EDO memory 2 hard drives (one 2.5 gig and an 8.4 gig) and an ATI MACH64 video card (2 mb). Any ideas on what I could use this computer for.....besides a paper weight?

 

[lowtech1]

It would work fine as a server behind a firewall. Or turn it into a firewall if you need one, or webserver.

 

[bullion416]

Can someone give me directions to set up this computer as a server? Also, is Win 98 SE the right operating system to use in oder to set up the computer as a server? If not I also own Win2k Server (edition), but this computer may not meet the requirements to run wink2k server. What help can you give me to get this set up? Thanks

 

[oniq]

Why not give linux a try? I ran a webserver on a Cyrix 150+ (120mhz) and it was fine for what needed to get done.

 

[lowtech1]

How to set up File Sharing in Windows 98/Me

 

[bullion416]

I don't know a thing about Linux so I will just stick with Windows, but what OS do you guys recomend? Windows 98 se or something like Win2k server (or would my computer even run win2k server?)

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: bullion416
I don't know a thing about Linux so I will just stick with Windows, but what OS do you guys recomend? Windows 98 se or something like Win2k server (or would my computer even run win2k server?)

If want to learn Windows networking then go for Win2k server. If simple file sharing is what you want then the inexpensive Win98 will do just fine.

Go here and download a Knoppix ISO and play with linux that will run perfectly on your 200mhz box with out install linux onto your hdd.

 

[ultimatebob]

What kind of server were you thinking of making?

 

[Doh!]

Or you need a router, make it a router/firewall with a floppy.

 

[bullion416]

Well.....I like to play games on my current system that I use......so I was wondering if this old 200 Mhz computer could make it as a game server. Would that work? The games I would use it to host would be Half Life/Counter Strike, Quake3, maybe some others. What do you think?

 

[lowtech1]

Not fast enough & not enough ram. Go to the games that you have mentioned sites and look for minimum server requirement, or do a quick search on Google.

 

[bullion416]

Will I need a special network card or will any 10/100Mbps card do the job? (I saw some generic ones on price watch for about $6 shipped)

 

[Superwormy]

You SHOULD try Linux / BSD, not knowing a thing about them is a perfect reason to install it and try it out!

 

[ProviaFan]

I bet you could get Windows 2000 Server to run on that hardware. It'd be slow, so don't expect to enjoy doing much direct work with the system, but you could make that into a nice firewall, router, web server, and domain controller (for 3 or 4 other workstations).

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: bullion416
Will I need a special network card or will any 10/100Mbps card do the job? (I saw some generic ones on price watch for about $6 shipped)

If it has PCI slots, get any PCI 10/100 ethernet card. It should work.

 

[bullion416]

I have heard you suggest to turn the computer into one of the following things: firewall, router, web server, and domain controller
But I really have no clue on how to do any of those things. Would it be easy (I know a fair amount about Microsoft OS, but not a whole lot about networking). I need some instructions.

 

[Colt45]

NT4 perhaps?

edit: With Apache webserver

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: lowtech
It would work fine as a server behind a firewall. Or turn it into a firewall if you need one, or webserver.

could you give a simple explanation on how to use it as a firewall? would it be a software or hardware firewall..just curious, sounds interesting

 

[bullion416]

I know what I want to do with the computer now. I would like it to acts as a file server. For example, I want users to be able to connect to the server via a user name and password, then they will be able to have access to the files on the server. What do I need to do to accomplish this?

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: NumbaJuan

Originally posted by: lowtech
It would work fine as a server behind a firewall. Or turn it into a firewall if you need one, or webserver.

could you give a simple explanation on how to use it as a firewall? would it be a software or hardware firewall..just curious, sounds interesting

The notion between hardware & software firewall is some what blur, because pretty much all firewall are software that read & control what get accept, deny, reject, or drop before (package) they are allow to enter your private network. I believe that ?hardware? firewall is a machine that dedicated for firewalling task only, while a software firewall is one that run other services in conjunction with package controlling.

There are scores of Windows, Unix, Netware & Linux firewall that you can purchase or built with a little of time. The Windows router/firewalls are relatively easy to get it up and running, but there believe that Windows may have too many flaws to deemed it secure. Netware Border Manager is a piece of garbage that needs an enormous amount of resources to manage & have no where the tools of its Unix/Linux counter part. I?m not familiar with the open source/free Unixes firewalls, but Linux have many configuration to chose, from floppy LRP (Linux Router Project), Cdrom image, to full blown database driven IDS (Intruder Detection System).

If you are willing to do a bit of reading & have a fast 486/Pentium + hdd, then SmoothWall will fit the bill perfectly. Unless you prepare to do a lot of work and configure your own powerful database (mySQL, PostgreSQL), Apache, Acid (Analysis Console for Intrusion Databases), and Snort.

 

[bullion416]

I decided against using it as a firewall since my school already has a really good one, plus I use the software firewall that I bought. Can someone please give me advice on my previous post? Thanks

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Install Redhat 8 and pick "file server" during the install.

 

[ugh]

If you're thinking of using it as a firewall, try installing SmoothWall as the Linux distro. It's lightweight and small.

 

[ultimatebob]

If you don't want to learn Linux, just install Windows 2000 Pro on your computer. Create a drive share by right-clicking on the folder you want to share and using the sharing option on the menu. Also, create some user accounts with the Computer Management program, and change the permissions on the drive share to set up some security. If you also want to make an FTP server, you can also install Internet Information Services and create folders for each user account. Also make sure to install all of the security patches, to avoid getting hacked.

Also, while you're putting an ethernet card in there, you might want to upgrade the system memory. Windows 2000 sucks with anything less than 128 MB. So do most GUI's in Linux, for that matter.

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
If you don't want to learn Linux, just install Windows 2000 Pro on your computer. Create a drive share by right-clicking on the folder you want to share and using the sharing option on the menu. Also, create some user accounts with the Computer Management program, and change the permissions on the drive share to set up some security. If you also want to make an FTP server, you can also install Internet Information Services and create folders for each user account. Also make sure to install all of the security patches, to avoid getting hacked.

Also, while you're putting an ethernet card in there, you might want to upgrade the system memory. Windows 2000 sucks with anything less than 128 MB. So do most GUI's in Linux, for that matter.

It is true that Xwindows/XFree86 is a huge resource hog, but you have the option to log out & shutdown X process once you finish with your administration in GUI. And, there also is the option to run in pure CLI mode once you are comfortable with console.