What can I do with an old case?

[Lord Ned]

I've got 2 old ones similar to this:
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/352/antec_p150_front.jpg

Any ideas what I can do to it?

Edit
The front power/reset are diffrenet.

[TheGreatSatan]

Question you really have to ask is what can't you do with it?

[Lord Ned]

Bout everything I don't know how to do. :think:


One has guts, the other is completely empty.

[Xpirate]

Those are nice boxes. The two old ATX cases I have are too old and cheap to have front panel USB ports. How good are the guts you have in the one case?

[Lord Ned]

Not that good. Bleh powersupply, 256 ram, PII or PIII, No HD.

[Trace]

I say mod them! (for practice at least) or give them away for shipping charges?

EDIT:
and if all else fails, BLOW THEM UP!

[Lord Ned]

That's the point. What to mod them with. Of course I'll mod them. :devious:

[Luke122]

Use it as a linux firewall. Mod it up to look like a safe, or a bullet proof box or something. :D

[Lord Ned]

Hahah, My mom would kill me for having another computer running 24/7.

Would be a intresting idea to network all the computers on the network, so I can actually use the printer that we have...

Question:
Can I run a network with 2 wired and a wireless, and share a printer that is connected (via usb) to the Wireless one?

And if all the computers run windows, can I run a Linux server, and use it as a file server/file sharing?

[halcyonforever]

Hahah, My mom would kill me for having another computer running 24/7.

Would be a intresting idea to network all the computers on the network, so I can actually use the printer that we have...

Question:
Can I run a network with 2 wired and a wireless, and share a printer that is connected (via usb) to the Wireless one?

And if all the computers run windows, can I run a Linux server, and use it as a file server/file sharing?

It can be done. I'm not the best with linux but I remember setting up Samba to do that.

[TheGreatSatan]

That's the point. What to mod them with. Of course I'll mod them. :devious:

What tools do you have?

[Luke122]

Hahah, My mom would kill me for having another computer running 24/7.


If you build it to run something like IPCOP, it wouldnt even need a hard drive. Boot/run from floppy drive, and use minimal power. It would be quiet too.

As far as networking your printer over wifi. The problem is that the laptop needs to be running to share the printer. A print server is the best solution for all the time access to a shared printer. Dlink makes some cheap print servers that have 2 usb ports and 1 lpt port for older hardware.

As far as using Linux, it can be done, but I dont know enough about it to help you much, sorry.

[Lord Ned]

What tools do you have?

Me? Not that many. My dad? Lots. :p


Also @Luke;
The laptop is usually on. (And she says I'm addicted.:dead:)
Also:

IPCOP Que?

[Crazy Buddhist]

IPCOP is a cut down distro of linux. Specifically it is a firewall and a very effective one. It is free, very small and will run on machines under the spec of your old ATX's. How effective is it? Large multi-national and financial institutions, and government departments use it to secure their networks. It's good ****.

Yes you can share a printer on windows machines and yes you can use a linux server. Samba is used under linux to manage windows workgroup networks. It maintains a list of machines on the workgroup and resources they are offering to the network. Usually windows does this itself using something called 'computer browser'. The first windows machine turned on will usually maintain the list of networked PCs and resources but not always as windows machines negotiate amongst themselves to do this job. If you are going to have a Samba server do the job I think it works best if you turn off computer browser in all the network properties tabs of the windoze machines. I have never set this up but I'm pretty sure its "cake-piece-of" territory.

Similarly for IPCOP. Never used it but it's on my list for an old pentium III I have hanging around. It is legendary software.

As to what you can do with those machines .... well you could turn one into an IPCOP firewall and have a home network that is more secure than a gnat's chuff. .... you could install one in a kitchen cupboard with a touch screen on the door so mom can google recipes and play music in the kitchen.

My fave idea though is ..... you could make the two into a cluster (in one box) and then use that as your file server (and add more old boards as they come along). Buy one big decent HDD, install the two boards in one case, you have two procs and two NICS etc working in your cluster server which will probably happily stream movies while you churn files around at the same time (even tho the machines are old). One machine does not even need a HDD - you can get it to network boot from a partition on the other machine.

There are really easy cluster versions of linux around - e.g. there is a knoppix based one (http://clusterknoppix.sw.be/).

This is my fave idea ONLY because in my sheer boredom today I started researching clusters. I have a half dozen old PII's and PIII's laying around but I realised I wanted to build a bigger more powerful cluster than that.... So I priced up a nice little 50 PC cluster on Newegg.com this morning for under $7,000 (yes 50 x CPU 50 x MOBO 50 x RAM 50 x Power pack, cables and switches).

What would I do with it? Laugh at it. I have no use for this. I have no $7,000 either hahaha. BUT ... I will cluster the stuff I have laying around - just to see what kind of monster can be made from "old crap". If it does miracles then I might find the $ and see what "new crap" can get up to :)

Anyone else clustered before?

CrazyB

[TheGreatSatan]

$$$$$$

[Lord Ned]

Similarly for IPCOP. Never used it but it's on my list for an old pentium III I have hanging around. It is legendary software.

Alright, I'll check it out.


As to what you can do with those machines .... well you could turn one into an IPCOP firewall and have a home network that is more secure than a gnat's chuff.

That would be good.


.... you could install one in a kitchen cupboard with a touch screen on the door so mom can google recipes and play music in the kitchen.

:think:


My fave idea though is ..... you could make the two into a cluster (in one box) and then use that as your file server (and add more old boards as they come along). Buy one big decent HDD, install the two boards in one case, you have two procs and two NICS etc working in your cluster server which will probably happily stream movies while you churn files around at the same time (even tho the machines are old). One machine does not even need a HDD - you can get it to network boot from a partition on the other machine.

One doesn't have guts... But my old Dell does... :D

Also what's the easiest way to cluster them, just screw the mobo to the case side? :P



What would I do with it? Laugh at it. I have no use for this. I have no $7,000 either hahaha. BUT ... I will cluster the stuff I have laying around - just to see what kind of monster can be made from "old crap". If it does miracles then I might find the $ and see what "new crap" can get up to :)
E-Penor. ;)

[Crazy Buddhist]

Alright, I'll check it out.
Also what's the easiest way to cluster them, just screw the mobo to the case side?

Nah. Don't have to do any physical modding to cluster. Just download clusterknoppix, burn it on two CD's, join the two NICS with a crossover cable or through a router or switch and boot from the two CD's you burned. You have a working cluster, as I understand things. Need to add in an extra NIC to one of the machines to connect it to the outside world if you are using a crossover cable.

However if you are going to mod two machines into one as a permanent cluster I would do some physical modding and get the whole lot in one box.

I have no idea if this would actually be useful really. I was having a "cluster day" when I last posted.

Matthew

[Lord Ned]

Yay my name is the same.

Regardless, setting up an IPCOp server... That seems Like i would need two nics. One to take the input from my modem, and another to got to the router?

[Crazy Buddhist]

Yay my name is the same.

Regardless, setting up an IPCOp server... That seems Like i would need two nics. One to take the input from my modem, and another to got to the router?

Yep two minimum. I believe it can actually act as the router - you can put in three nics and a wireless card and you have a two ethernet port wireless router firewall.

Matthew

[Lord Ned]

Yep two minimum. I believe it can actually act as the router - you can put in three nics and a wireless card and you have a two ethernet port wireless router firewall.

Matthew

Another question. I fix computers alot and half the time it's wireless problem related. Keeping an unsecure wireless network inside the firewall defeats the purpose right? :S

[halcyonforever]

Never never leave an unsecured wireless connection... basically use the wireless card to act as an access point for a secured wireless connection to that network.

[Lord Ned]

Never never leave an unsecured wireless connection... basically use the wireless card to act as an access point for a secured wireless connection to that network.

What?

Also yeah I know never leave an unsecured connection.
But use what wireless card whaty what? It's a laptop connecting to the wireless router (which is also the one that we use for our hardwired computers)


I don't have a wireless card like a pci plugin.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Another question. I fix computers alot and half the time it's wireless problem related. Keeping an unsecure wireless network inside the firewall defeats the purpose right? :S

IPCOP designates zones based on the different NICS. The Internet facing NIC is the wild west, NICS facing the internal network are secured from the internet by the software. You can also install another NIC for a DMZ (De Militirized Zone) for webservers etc if you are into that.

As to never leaving wireless unsecured. I could not communicate with you guys if one of my neighbours was not doing that right now.

Matthew

[Lord Ned]

Hahah, nice. I'll have to see if I can pick up a spare nic card.

[Crazy Buddhist]

IPCop 1.4.x Features (http://www.ipcop.org/)


Features supported

Interfaces

* 4 interfaces with typical behavior
* GREEN : inside network
* RED : outside network (internet)
* ORANGE : DMZ (accessible from in and outside)
* BLUE : inside network for wifi (connect an Access point to this interface)
* VLAN available
* alias available on RED interface


Hardware

* support i386 and alpha architecture (ppc will be available soon)
* memory size supported from 12 MB to 4 GB
* IDE, SCSI, SATA and RAID disk controller with 250 MB minimal hard disk size
* network cards from linux-2.4 kerne (ISA / PCI)
* smp kernel available on i386 for HT / multicore or multiples CPU
* indirect installation to flash device


Installation

* boot from floppy / usb floppy ( usb floppy allow only install from cdrom)
* boot / installation from IDE / SCSI cdrom
* boot / installation from usb key
* boot from PXE enabled network card (need avdhcp and tftp server)
* installation from http/ftp server

Only mistake I made was that you have to connect an access point to an Ethernet card to get the wireless functionality. Not bad considering the last time I read anything about IPCOP was five years ago ;)

Matthew

[Lord Ned]

So what all would I need for a wireless setup, ipcop, and wired network?

I'd need:
Modem
4 Port Router/Switch (For the Hardwired)
Acess point (Or another router with wireless captablities?)
Old box that has two NIC cards
IPCop.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I'd need:
Modem
4 Port Router/Switch (For the Hardwired)
Acess point (Or another router with wireless captablities?)
Old box that has two NIC cards
IPCop.

Depends if you need all four ports on the router for the wires. If you do you need three NICS - one to plug the access point into. If not plug the access point into the router. Or yes buy/reuse a wireless router but not sure how that goes so check for yourself on the IPCOP site first.

Matthew

[Lord Ned]

Only need 3 of them. Have 2 XP boxes and an Edbuntu box. :)