Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 10:28:36 -0600 From: "J. Seth Henry" <jshenry@net-noise.com> To: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: questions-digest V5 #43 Message-ID: <005d01c08559$88ff7340$9865fea9@guinevere> References: <bulk.31854.20010123000137@hub.freebsd.org>
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> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal > X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 > Ken Bolingbroke wrote: >> >> I've been running a mail/web/dns server as well as a NAT gateway on >> a 386dx40 with 8meg RAM for several years. One caveat is that you >> need at least 12 meg RAM to run sysinstall on more recent versions >> of FreeBSD, but I could do a buildworld on a faster machine, then >> installworld on the '386 just fine. It's recently been retired >> from those duties and now serves as just a fax server, but it's >> always done the job. DNS, mail for a handful of users, and a low >> traffic web site isn't all that demanding. After all, this machine >> was state-of-the art 10 years ago. :-) > > Even better, these older 386's and 486/33's don't need a CPU fan, > so one less thing to get cockeyed. And I'd trust a system that > has lasted 10 years and was still going strong more than a > system with only 6 months on it. That might apply to the silicon, but it definitely doesn't apply to moving parts such as fans (there are still fans in most power supplies) and disk drives. _________________ Finding spare AT power supplies isn't too difficult, even these days. If you do run into difficulties, and you have a Rat Shack in your neighborhood, you can also buy a replacement fan for your PS - it's $9 at most places. I doubt the original supply is still under warranty... ;) I did this for a friend of mine, whose original fan choked on dust. As for disk drives, the only problem is finding a disk that the BIOS on those older machines will recognize. I've found that using an ISA or VESA (remember that one?) board with a built in BIOS will get around this. Now, there are newer boards (usually ISA) that replace the system BIOS' hard disk calls. Of course, there are lots of ways to boot these suckers. You could even netboot, and mount a filesystem using NFS. There is also the venerable floppy drives, SCSI subsystems, etc. Although I have since sold all of my 486 systems (save my Compaq laptop), they are still quite useful. Not every application needs a firebreathing Pentium or Athlon. The DHCP server (before the idiots in my department starting getting ideas...) was a 486dx2-66, I believe it was an old Gateway machine. It served faithfully for years before some knucklehead replaced it with a PentiumII running WinNT. I started statically coding my IP's shortly thereafter. I would say that if you have some old 386 and 486 systems laying around, put 'em to use! They are great for cable/DSL/satellite firewalls, DHCP servers, fax servers and any other low bandwidth duties. I use my old laptop as a dumb terminal. Seth Henry jshenry@net-noise.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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