Networks What to do with my old system

Hey all

Ill be upgrading my computer at the end of the week (XP 1800+, Gigabyte GP-7VRXP, 256 DDR, Barracuda 80gb) and was wondering what i could do with my old machine. Its a:

Athlon 700
128mb sdram (giving the other 128 to a mate)
25gb fujitsu HDD
Realtek NIC
(see sig for more info)

Ill be keeping my modem in my new machine, my ISP is Tiscali Anytime and i have an auto redial program running, which reconnects every 2 hours.

I currently have a 5 port switch, which i mainly use for LANs and only has my computer plugged into it.

What can i do with my old machine?

 

Webserver (keep the RAM), Fileserver, Linux Firewall (overkill with those specs IMHO), Counterstrike Server, give it to me for my webserver , in car pc, give it to some charity...

Just get a KVM switch and you can use monitor KB and Mouse with both machines.

 

What would i need (software) for a file server/game server?

id like to mobilise it and use it as a small lan box...could chuck it in a desktop case and get one of those switches?

Any more ideas?

 

yeah, definatly for file/web server...even use it to stream all your mp3s of it...

just chuck on win2k and youre sorted...and if ever get broadband use it as a gateway....

 

hmm possibly, but i havent got loads to store.

If i were to run it as a Q3/CS server what would i need? Would i need a 3d graphics card?

i think this could be a possibility, as when some friends and i have another network we could just use that to host our games, download updates off....hmmm....how much are those switch thingys??

 

nope...it dont need a high end graphics as far as i know as long as it will be a dedicated server so no ones playin on it....

i got meself one of them nice switchy things and it came to just about 68quid....

nice 8 port dual speed netgear hub.....

 

From what I remember all you need is a server mod to the various games you want to host. This is definitely the case for CS. As flix said the Gfx Card is quite irrelevant as you wouldn’t be playing on the server. If you were asking about KVM switches they vary in price according to facilities and brand. Some are manual and some are automatic (hotkey control). I personally would avoid the lower end switches like the ones seen in Maplins cheaper range and they often cause interference on the picture. Do a search on Dabs or Ebuyer for KVM, there should be loads to compare.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but KVM Switch = Keyboard Video Mouse Switch.

 

thats very good piece of advice there...

there was a review of a belkin one on vh sometime ago, and it did quite well and looked funky too....