would this work as a server?

F

fr33ze

Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Messages
556
ok so this is the setup in our house.

one of my roomates comps is acting as a server and is connected to the internet (1Mb connection). everyone elses computer is then linked to his through a network switch so his computer has to be on for any of us to use the net. The problem with this is he often turns his computer off during the night leaving us internetless...argh.

basically i just got an old comp with the following specs

pentium 200mmx
64mb ram
5Gb HD

dunno other specs yet but i can find them out if it helps, i'll probably install windows 98 on it.

basically i was wondering if this is powerful enough to run as the house server and leave on all the time, the other computers would then link to this one through the switch.

has anybody else done this, do you know what components are critical in maintaining good network speed.

btw i do realise a router is better but we cant afford one cuz we're poor ased students

cheers for the help in advance
 
Yes it would work fine as a router, I was in an office that used a p1 133 for a Linux firewall of general office internet connection. It was booted only from floppy and had no hard drive, so it would just restart if the power went off. It worked fine with 50 users and 3 MB ADSL

It would work best if you had 2 network cards in there but you could probably get away with using 1 (depending on OS/software)

have a look at this

http://www.smoothwall.org/
 
sweet as, cheers for the help guys.

it will have two network cards cuz it doesn't have any ports built in.

would operating system make much if any difference at all cuz if it doesn't i'll put xp on just cuz im more familiar with it
 
Originally posted by fr33ze
sweet as, cheers for the help guys.

it will have two network cards cuz it doesn't have any ports built in.

would operating system make much if any difference at all cuz if it doesn't i'll put xp on just cuz im more familiar with it
Click to expand...

XP will be as slow as hell on that 64 megs RAM it would probably swap just using it as a router. if you want to use windows for that I think NT4 would work OK if you set it up carefully. I really think the Linux firewall is a better solution though.

Don't worry those Linux firewalls are quite easy to set up as long as you know the proper network info. I have done a few and am by no means a Linux expert. In fact i would say they are easier than some program i used to use to make windows a router. (winroute? i forget)

and it is much less likely someone will haxor your network :)
 
cheers DeFex and defcom_1, if linux router is as esay as you say it is then i'll give that a try.

i know windows xp likes lots of ram and the only reason i was considering using it is cuz i know my way round it fairly well and i've got the relevant software to make it reasonably secure.
 
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