ok i have damn small on a junk box now what?
 

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** installation of DSL
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** ~40 megs of RAM
* (maxed out i think)
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** 1 HDD ~2.3 GB~
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** P2 133Mhz CPU
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** CD-Rom
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** Floppy drive
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** Ethernet card
* (working internet)
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** Generic video card
* 800x600 16bit MAX
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those are the specs... its not my main computer so i dont use it often yet it needs a niche or something i can use it for....

**its not built "cleanly" so i cant give it away and who in there right mind would buy it....**

so besides that im looking for suggestions

oh and by the way if your suggestion involves a different OS make sure its compatible.... :D

You could use it for lengthy downloads. Start the download and walk away and do something else.

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Steve Stites

ok thats one option.... it would need to be bittorrent and i added an extra 14 gigs for storage anyways so good idea...

any others?

I have practically the same PC running NASLite http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php and been using it for a couple fo years for a file server. I just boot it up on Saturday and a script on our two Win boxes copy changed files to it. Works great and it's a good use for an old POS. You could look at smoothwall if you need a free firewall. It used to run DSL and Feather on this PC, it worked but was a tad too limited. Please no flames from the Feather/DSL folks, it was fun and I really was pleased with frugal, but decided to move on.

cool but the problem is i prefer to use my larger hard drives for my good computers...

i dont give two flying spits about being hacked i have nothing rare or desired on my computers

i agree that dsl is limited but my resources are even worse....

i like the idea of using it to background large downloads

anything else? i doubt theres any better ideas but its worth a shot

ok my download thing crapped out i cant get a decent torrent prog to work.....

Servers could be a way to go
 

You can use a minimal install of Debian to get a server up and running.
Samba could be a great way to make a Windows based file server/print server

You can archive files or have a central location for your other computers.

If you have Windows, Putty is a great way to "ssh" into your computer...that way you can run it without a monitor. IE headless

If you go Debian (Which you can consider the parent of DSL) you can get a lot of power from old machines like what you have.

I have not built a DSL based server, but you may have started everything you need.

The graphics could chew through the little RAM you have, so I would suggest you use only the shell.

The commands could seem a little archaic at first, however once you start learning it, you will be amazed at the power you gain.

well thanks for trying to comfort but im not a noobie per-say although you are right in the fact i havent mastered the shell yet maby its time i practice....

i have been using variations of debian and even debian "in the raw" for a few years but im not quite an expert


but on the topic of the idea.... i started with that at 1st but made the mistake of putting even something as minimal as icewm on xfree86 so as you said it ate the ram right up....


ill try it again but one thing is the combo of even all 3 spare drives is only aprox. 50GB give or take 1 or 2 GB and on the flip side my hard drives on my 3 desktops are all 60GB and up.... and on top all that my laptop has 40 GB of its own


now given none of those hard drives are filled amongst them theres over 50GB of used space im sure of it



edit: in this post i say im not a newb yet its in the newb forum.... why?

answer 1. fast replys (sad but true)
answer 2. im not ready to move on (im still learning)
answer 3. its an easy question...

Err just a quick comment about 'I am not worried about being hacked'. By allowing your system to be hacked, you are putting others at risk since YOUR machine can then be used to attack other machines (as part of a botnet for example). Please make sure that you have proper firewalls etc in place since it is no longer simlpy **YOUR** problem once you are hacked.


By the way, i have yet to hear someone owning a *GUN* saying that he is not worried about his gun being used by someone else (To kill others ..maybe) simply becaues the bullets in the gun are *Not that expensive**... Apply the same logic to computers and we would have a lot less spam etc on internet..


Sorry if i sound a bit paranoid but i thought i should mention this...

dude id say a good 50% of all "hackers" are just virus programmers

another 25% are identity theft

then about 20% only attack large corporations/governments and if they do what you said require a host meeting special requirements such as line speed

the last 5 percent are misk things like an idiot kid pissed off at runescape or something


*linux doesnt get viruses
*we're not ideal candidates for fraud
*not the coke-a-cola factory nor is my line speed desired
*we didnt piss of any 12yr olds



(based off of educated guesses)