[:BLIP:]Re: [Gllug] 486sx 25 machine - thoughts and comments

[Jim]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 11:42:39PM +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> On Friday 12 Apr 2002 11:33 pm, Chris Bell wrote:
> > On Fri 12 Apr, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> > > I have a 486sx-25 box with an adaptec scsi card and a 240mb disk (there
> > > was a 500mb disk but I have already put that in another box). The machine
> > > has some sentimental value (I've had it since 93) - as well as 32MB of
> > > memory: which was big for that time.
> > >
> > > It has an isa bus and no network card.
> > >
> > > Question is: should I chuck it or is there a real use for it?

There is always a use for old kit.

> > > I have three other boxes - all running Linux and networked (including my
> > > Dreamcast).
> > >
> > > Any thoughts? Anybody got an ISA NIC they would like to give me or sell
> > > me for very little.
> >
> >    Is it fast enough for a firewall? An ISA 10baseT NIC is not difficult to
> > find, and you don't have the usual low memory problem, (computers around
> > that age often take the very short SIMMs, and you are limited to about 4MB
> > of RAM). Fit two NIC's for an ADSL ethernet to ethernet firewall? Or should
> > it be a 486DX to get sufficient speed?

I am not an expert on this but a 486 and 32MB of Ram should be enough
for a fire wall sufficient for home needs you can use either Linux or
mess about with Open BSD and pretend you are Uber Leet.

> I have thought about this, but my "ADSL" provider is Homechoice, and so its 
> serial port.

Firewalls should be able to filter on a serial port check out the Linux
Network administrators guide, unless I missing something about ADSL.
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/nag/node1/.html#SECTION001000000

> What is more the 93 machine is *very* loud. Not as loud as the original 
> Amstrad 1386 machine that was my first PC - in 1990 - but still much louder 
> than today's machines.

If fan noise is really a problem you might want to consider replacing
the fan with a heat sink, Intel Celeron 300s use them so it should work
with a 486
> 
> As the ADSL box is in the bedroom this is a serious matter!
> 
> I have thought of using it as a domestic httpd machine....

It is an idea but you have limited hard disk space unless you use NFS to
mount your data drives remotely.  You might also consider the same
solution for a MySQL DB, an Icecast Audio server, or maybe mess about
with LDAP or DNS.

have fun with it what ever you do.

Peace Jim


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