Keen for a Linux server!

[Matthew Hawkins]

On Mon, 29 Apr 2002, Scott Oates wrote:
> I am also seriously hardware impaired with a very minimal budget.
> Particularly I am deficient in CPU power and Ram. but really all the 
> technology is very out of date hand me downs and seriously impairs the 
> performance of the office.
> 
> So if you know where I could pick up some free/cheap bits n pieces I would 
> dearly love to know.

I have a P100 with 24 Mb of ram that I use as a dialup router, DHCP and
DNS server, firewall, web proxy server and SMB domain controller (with
some shares).  Works extremely well (though I staggered the cron jobs a
little more than normal so the old IDE drive would last a little longer)
and last I looked the uptime was 160 days (though that look involved a
new kernel, so I lost that)

Obviously the better hardware you have the better it will work (to a
point) but you should really be looking at whether or not the way it
works on whatever you have is satisfactory for your requirements.
Who really cares that the DNS server can resolve names .002 of a second
faster if you spent $1000 on a beefier server, if you're resolving 50
new names a day?

That being said, a not too bad place to get cheapish hardware is at the
auctions held by places like Pickles and Hymans.  The box above was
obtained at such a place, I got it with a 17" monitor that I put to work
on my own PC.  Just remember to look beforehand at all the available
gear, and look again on auction day to make sure its the same gear you
saw before, and guard it like a .. um.. Swiss National Guard if you do
win something.  Oh, and watch out for the bastards from Dodgy Brothers
Renewed Computers who will sit up the back and try to force your price
up during the bidding.

Most of the stuff sold is ex-government which means you can get some not
too much out of date gear which has usually been maintained okay, at
ridiculously cheap prices.  Definately good enough for your needs though
I guess it depends on the size of your organisation (for example I
wouldn't try running my box above as such a server for 50 active
simulaneous clients - well, I might for a laugh ;)

All the software you'll ever need (and more) comes with your shiny new
Debian CD's which some people here will be more than happy to burn for
you.

-- 
Matt