Spare Stuff From Old PC, What To Do?

[synapz]

Hey guys, i was looking around my house today and found that i have a 478 mobo, pentium 4 processor, old HDD, and some RAM, laying around. I also have an old case. Do you think i should do something with all of this or not? I mean if i was to make new mod the compinents wouldnt be up to much would it with a 478 socket etc lol. I have no CD ROM or anything to go in it and id have to buy a PSU, what you guys think. I am running a home netowrk between 2 laptops and a pc so i could youse it as storage? Well opinions would be much apreciated and welsomed. Its a blank canvus to work with lol. Thanks

[Rankenphile]

With that stuff, you could make a nice start for a home file server. Have you considered making it into a media center? Would you find use for such a device? Do you and your family have a lot of media currently that you'd like to have available across the system? If you do, a file server may be the way to go. If not, but you want a centralized place to enjoy media and such, a media cetner may be the way to go, adn can be built for a pretty reasonable investment, especially considering you've got a good start with all that stuff.

[synapz]

I was thinking about making a file server, its just i have no clue how to do one or set one up lol, ill do some research now lol

[nil8]

The easiest way is to install windows and make network shares. Then map the drives to your computer.

That would make the start of a nice file server. Hard drives make a lot of heat, so be wary of small cases.

[OvRiDe]

Easier then loading Windows.. try FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org/). Very small and lightweight, but has some very nice features. The whole OS loads in under 16MB of space so if your Mobo supports it, you could load it on a cheap USB flash drive. It has a web based interface, so you really don't even need a keyboard, mouse, or monitor to administer it. AND ...... It's FREE!!

[FyR]

A PSU about £10, cdrom (borrow from your main pc to load the OS) or £10 then You could use it to host a linux based firewall, its one of the safest ways of doing it :)

[synapz]

A PSU about £10, cdrom (borrow from your main pc to load the OS) or £10 then You could use it to host a linux based firewall, its one of the safest ways of doing it :)

thanks for your suggestions guys, can you please tell me how i would go about hosting a linux based firewall please?

[xmastree]

Easy, instal linux, install the firewall, and configure it!
:)

Ok, you'll need a CDROM and two NICs installed. The CD can come out again once you're finished. The two NICs will stay. One goes 'out there' to the internet, the other goes to your LAN. Best to use a hub and conect the other two computers to that.

So, which distro? That's the $64,000 question.

Does the machine have a floppy drive?
http://www.freesco.org/
* Minimum install requires a 386sx 16 with 8mb of ram. 16+mb of ram is recommended for enabling servers

Installs and runs from a floppy disk, or it can be installed on the hard drive. Either way there's no need for a CD.

[FyR]

As you may be aware, there are many distributions of linux. The one you want is called smoothwall, get it here: http://www.smoothwall.org/

Basicly its an operating system that IS a firewall, there is no firewall to install because thats what the OS is. Because the operating system is soley used as a firewall its very easy on resources so even a pc thats 10 - 15 years old (or even older) can host it with ease. I love the idea, its like a retirement plan for an old pc :D

Its open source and best of all its free! Let us know how you get on as im going to put myself together one when i get chance.

EDIT: oh yea as xmastree pointed out you will need a form of networking, get yourself a cheapo network card if you havnt got one onboard your old pc

[lotech]

Can a standard wireless card be used as the interfact card, out of curiosity. I'm thinking of cobbling together a file server.

EDIT: Right, so I wanna create a linux file server for my home. There's several computers both pcs and macs, and would be cool be have a file server for backups and for sharing files. Soooo..... say I put together a fairly crap computer, but good enough just for being the server, and just stick one or several high capacity HDDs on there. Then is Samba recommended? My knowledge of linux is very limited but I have always liked the idea. Just been reading up on it and it seems to be the best thing out there for creating a linux to windows and mac server. And of course the origional question remains. I would want it to be on my wireless network, so I would like it to be able to run using just a wireless card. Thanks,

LoTech

[nil8]

Wireless is typically slower than wired networks, so if speed of data is an issue, run cable.

I suggested windows because you are probably more familiar with it than linux, and personally, I wouldnt use my first linux box. Make a linux box out of an old 700 mhz crap box and dont rely on it for anything if you screw it up.

If you do want to go with linux, I would suggest ubuntu. It is simple and has a great community.

Samba is a linux program that allows linux to communicate with windows networks, so if you want a linux fileserver, this is very useful.

FreeNAS looks neat. Ill try it out when I get around to it.

[lotech]

Well i'm pretty capable, I don't think I would screw anything up on linux. Besides, I wouldn't use it for backups until I know it was stable etc. Thanks for the tips :)

[Cevinzol]

Wireless is typically slower than wired networks, so if speed of data is an issue, run cable.the transfer rate of the hard drive is slower than wireless. So even though its slower its not the datastream bottleneck, plus its faster to setup than pulling cable through walls.

[synapz]

i have 2 laptops in my house and one PC, they are all connected to my ADSL Modem router, the 2 laptops by wireless and the PC by Ethernet. If i make the old PC as a file server with a firewall how do i configure the firewall to protect the connection? Also i think i have a network card, its a PCI card with an ethernet port on the back yer?

[Rankenphile]

like so.


modem --> firewall --> router --> everything else.

Configuration for the firewall should be pretty straight-forward. Do a little reading on the site for the firewall software you're considering and it should tell you just about everything you need to know.

[nil8]

the transfer rate of the hard drive is slower than wireless. So even though its slower its not the datastream bottleneck, plus its faster to setup than pulling cable through walls.


Yea, if you're running ATA33.
802.11b & g (11mbps & 54mpbs) are slower than ata66 standard for pata. Sata blows this out of the water. ATA133 blows this out of the water.

Your HD transfer rates are higher than standard 100mbps home networks with both of these.

Wireless is harder to secure, prone to more drop out, and a bad idea in the terms of range. Wired networks get it done all the time every time. The only downside to wired is running the cable. And for this, you can use raceways or conduit.

[XcOM]

Above was what i was about to say, i have a laptop on a 802.11G wireless card, i transfured a 500MB file as a test,

516MB ISO for test:
Connection type - Time taken
Wireless(802.11G) - 15Min
100MB Wired - 8 Min
1GB Wired - 1-2 min

And this was all taken from the server that has a 1GB network card in it, all the tests were run one at a time, on freshly installed machines, all running windows XP SP2 Corp (2600) from a server running Windows 2000 Advanced Server (GB Network card - Belkin)

Enjoy, and tbh, install a copy of windows, its much simpler, until you know linux inside out, i wouldn't recomend trying to use it as a file/Internet server

The easiest way isto setup the box with two network cards, Internet into card 1, windows runs it through a firewall, share the internet using wizard provided with windows XP/2003
As for file sharing, just share the drives/folders on your server, than map the drives on the other machines.

[synapz]

right guys i have just installed smoothwall now heres the orgmel, i have a built in Router/ADSL modem. Which means that i have the firewall parallel running, anyone have any idea how to get around this considering i cyrently have each PC in my house going directly to the modem, not through the firewall first :S

[Rankenphile]

You know, that router is serving as a firewall pretty well on it's own. As long as you disable Universal Plug & Play, or UPNP, on it, you should be okay. There are steps you can take to close off other ports on it, but you shouldn't have to worry about it too much.

[synapz]

hay guys, im so confused now, i have downloaded samba and read the how to install etc but i have no clue, is it not a .iso hing that i can put in the pc i want as the file server, its so confusing.