is linux the answer?

[Bob Edwards]

> On Mon, 9 Sep 2002 6:18 pm, Norvan Vogt wrote:
> > Hello Linux'ites
> >
> > You'll have to excuse me as I am new to the open source Game but I would
> > really appreciate some help with a problem that I have.
> >
> > I am currently configuring 6 client machines and a Gateway server so that I
> > may put together a number of Computers that will all be able to access the
> > same ISP 56kbs Dialup Account  so that they might be able to browse the Web
> > and use IRC. This will be done as part of the Scout Activity JOTI and
> > therefore it must be robust (ie the little kiddies can't get in and play
> > with the OS) and 2 done for $0 (I have been collecting all sorts of old
> > Computers for this task)
> >
> > I have decided that Linux is probably the best answer for this.(yeah!!!)
> > The Client Machines are all basically P1 100mhz-133mhz with 32Mb RAM and a
> > 500Mb (or so) HDD.
> >
> > The Gateway Server is a P1 166Mhz 64Mb RAM and a 4Gb HDD.
> >
> > After consulting a number of friends I have been advised to use Redhat 7.1
> > (seawolf) with KDE as the OS should allow me to have all of the functions
> > that I need and that Esmith 5.5 Gatway server should be the best answer for
> > the Gateway server
> >
> > Here are the problems
> > 1. Is this the right kind of thinking or have I just lost it, is there
> > better software out there?
> > 2. Redhat 7.1 (seawolf) with KDE takes around the 700mb space which makes
> > it too large for the HDDs that I am using
> > 3. How the Smeg do you configure the esmith server to a gateway --- Is
> > there any good step by step help doco (other than all the stuff on
> > esmith.org)?

One other configuration worth considering is to use NFS to mount /usr
read-only
from the gateway/server (make sure you configure NFS properly not to receive
requests from your "outside" link!).

We run lots of our machines like that here at ANU. There is no noticable
performance issue, you save disk space on the clients for swap, /tmp etc.
and you have heaps of room to install all sorts of goodies (kernel source
trees, stuff in /usr/local etc.)

It is relatively easy to do with RedHat. I have tried it with Debian, but
haven't yet sorted out how to configure the dpkg stuff to behave, despite
the supposed adherence to the File System Standard.

Cheers,

Bob Edwards.