totally unrelated computer question

Okay I know many of you are very computer savy. I have been taking apart and toying with computers since I was about twelve so I know my way around the kitchen but I have a few questions about networking. Right now I am networking three computers at my house wirelessly and I have an old pentium two dell that I re-built to standard office computer specs just sitting around. I would like to turn this computer into some sort of server seeing as it is not a terrible computer and I hate looking at it sitting still going obsolete every day. Can anyone tell me what sort of server would be most beneficial in this scenario (Internet gateway? File?)and how to go about setting it up? (Or any links or websites I could read about it on)

Are you using a Router or a Hub?

not totally sure :oops: ah. Linksys router

What is ur internet connection like...say cable/dsl? If you have either, you could have a dedicated server for your internet. Just throw in 100base ethernet adapter in it, bump up the memory and you have a server that lets you surf in the living room/bedroom and if you want, in the John :lol: Not to metion the added protection of a firewall!

it is a cable connection. Will a dedicated internet server speed up internet connections and such? It has an ethernet card built in as it came from an office and I actually have some memory laying around. Do I need to format the hard drive and install a server operating system?

It would be good if you can up the memory. And yes the serfing should be fast considering that its a dedicated internet machine. How much ram are you running on it and whats the frequency? See if you can get ur hands on XP sever edition as this is more user friendly than Linux.

512 RAM what do you mean by frequency? Yeah I was checking out Linux but I'm gonna try to get a copy of XP server.

Uber-game server d00d - open up your ports and host a game of Battlefield: Vietnam!

Hehe I'm kidding. I'll be going into the same position this weekend - and likely wind up making the extra box the new file and backup server for our other . . . bunch of computers. We may have as many PCs as snakes at this point mang, I really don't know. What OS will you be installing for the server? You fluent in Linux?

no not fluent in linux thought it would be far easier on my bank account if I was... I have messed with it a bit, my buddy Juan likes it and runs it but I was raised on the Apple IIGS at school and old school 1GB windows PCs. (now of course I've played around with some powerbooks and imacs and much much faster PCs - I'm working on building a new pent4 retail rig so that I can do some video editing stuff) I'm gonna try to get a copy of XP server. I formatted the drives and threw XP pro on it in case anybody in my family or friends needed it but it just sits there and I can't handle it anymore haha.

Windows Server 2003 you mean?

Mod an empty case into a small herp enclosure - or better yet one for bugs - doh nevermind thats not the point.

Frequency meaning clock speed in MHz like 333DDR or 133SDRAM. Never mind, I just saw that its an older dell so it would be running either 100 or 133.

I say with an old computer like that you may only be able to use it as a file server depending on how big the hard drive is. And if its just a home network a client type network is not suitable since you are networking less then 10 computers. I say get a hub or a router if you prefer and set up a peer to peer network this way all of the computers will be able to be connected. I say if you have a broadband modem then use a router they are not to expensive linksys makes one that comes with its own firewall for about 60 bux. And it depends on what kind of work you are doing. I look after some servers here at work we have a file server with raid capabilities and it has maybe 200GB we also have an Exchange sever and that handles all of out internet mail and web operation. But the network i look after has maybe 60 computers on it so this type of network is not good for you plus its expensive as hell.

Yes, a peer to peer network will work best in your situation this way all computers could print to 1 printer and all computers could also be online at the same time. And with peer to peer you dont need linux or Novell just as long as all of the machines are windows based and you should have no problems. You can go to www.tigerdirect.com they have some cheap systems and everything you need to set up a network and they are cheap.

Take my Novell . . . PLEASE!

thanks everyone! You guys are great!