Schools IT Teacher is giving me a few of their old ThinkCenter PC's... 512mb ram, decent processor... Not that bad of a computer. They're also in great shape.
I was thinking of running backtrack on it or even Debian with a server on it.
Further suggestions are appreciated!
Set up some kind of sandbox. Something where you can test new software or modifications without worrying about messing up a primary computer.
I would say run your own mail server (Zimbra) but you don't have enough RAM. So I'm going to go with setting up OpenVPN and lock your network down while still being able to access it from an outside connection.
Thats a very broad question, theres tons you can do with old PCs depending on your need amd the specs and state of the old PCs.
Heres what I've done with old PCs in the past:
- Used as Network Attached Storage, Media Server, Encoding videos, HTTP/FTP server, mail server etc
- Used as routers having vpn, firewall, port forwarding/blocking capabilities working better than most commercial routers
- Sandboxes for various tests, New linux distros, new windows os, old windows os, osx86 (thats mac on a pc),
- Running Basic/C++/VB programs to control some robotic stuff for college experiments.
- Good for swapping out components to test other systems.
- Over-over-overclock CPU/RAM to see it go up in smoke
- Donate to a charitable organization that will take old PCs (cleaned and working ofcourse)
(2009-10-15, 08:18 AM)KuJoe Wrote: [ -> ]I would say run your own mail server (Zimbra) but you don't have enough RAM. So I'm going to go with setting up OpenVPN and lock your network down while still being able to access it from an outside connection.
512MB Ram is enough for a mail server?
No, you need at least 1.5GB to run Zimbra without constantly accessing the swap. Some people were able to run it with 512MB if you disable a lot of features, but why run a dedicated mail server with less features than RoundCube?
I think I'm going to put backtrack on it...
Btraill try this. Download freebsd, and use it as a server. (one bt sucks. Just install the apps on Ubuntu. Easier in the longrun.)
Their site wont load for me.
Backtrack's? Tons of people are having that issue. I think they maybe be shutting down. But really, make a test server. Or a virus computer. (I have one with about 20 on it
)