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Date:      Sat, 9 Dec 1995 10:57:40 -0600 (CST)
From:      "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net>
To:        sreid@edmbbs.iceonline.com
Cc:        freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Hardware for ISP / WWW server
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.951209104352.7709B-100000@sasami>
In-Reply-To: <9512090501.D5651Li@edmbbs.iceonline.com>

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On Sat, 9 Dec 1995 sreid@edmbbs.iceonline.com wrote:
> Pentium 90 (PCI) with 256k or 512k cache

Get an Asus Triton based motherboard.  If you can get 512k cache
(sync pipeline) then do.  You probably want to get 60ns ram so
you can use it on the P120 or P6 you may upgrade to in the future.

> 32 megs of RAM

This will work.  I'm running 4 virtual domains on my test system for
various things on a 32 meg machine.  If you do alot of CGI you will
probably want more.

> Cheap SCSI CDROM (1x or 2x, only for installing FreeBSD)

The only thing I've used my cdroms for is playing music CDs.  If you
have the net connection, just install from the net.
(Well, you can get one of these for about $70, so what the heck)

> Fast SCSI hard drive(s)... SCSI is best?

I'm using Quantum Grand Prix drives here and they are very nice.
You just have to make sure they are cooled well.  The Atlas drives
are better still.  I'm using bt946s and NCR810s but you will probably
want to go with and Adaptec 294x card.

> Cheap VGA card+monitor

Very.  Don't encourage X use on this machine.

> 28.8 kbps modems for dial-up

Run dialup from a terminal server.  A Livingston portmaster is a great
box and has a very hackable security server. (Um... no, rather its easy
to modify to suit your needs)

> Cheap ethernet card so a nearby Dos machine can have net access

Get a DE21040 based card.  Cheap and FAST.

> With 32 megs, we'll have only a minimal newsfeed... Everything will
> be handled by this one machine. Is this do-able?

Er...  Maybe.

> We were thinking of starting with just a 1-2 gig HD, and if we need more
> space, buy another drive. And HD brand recommendations? Is SCSI the best

I usually like a gig for the system disk.  That lets you install all
the sources and the ports skeleton and most all the utils you could want.
(And lots of swap).  A second gig or two for user space / web / small ftp
areas...  News is a whole different story.  Need more disk/ram etc.

> choice for the HD? Any recommendations on the brand of SCSI interface?
> Any brand recommendations on the motherboard?

SCSI.  Adaptec.  Asus.

> Any advice would be appreciated.

I've a dx4/100 with 32 meg and 2 gigs of disk that runs 4 virtual web/ftp
domains, an irc server, 2 muds, secondary name service, samba file service
for some windows boxes, and usually has 10-20 shell users on it.  Its not
a very busy machine but I'm very impressed with how well it runs...

As long as you don't overbudget your system, you should be able to do lots
of stuff on it.

Take care and have fun. 

| Matthew N. Dodd   | winter@jurai.net    | http://www.jurai.net/~winter    |
| Technical Manager | mdodd@intersurf.net | http://www.intersurf.net        |
| InterSurf Online  | "Welcome to the net Sir, would you like a handbasket?"|




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