I still have this box with ASUS P2B-DS with onboard Ultra2 scsi ( I can't even find this on the ASUS site) with 2 PII-400. I think I have 500MB PC100 ram (long time since I last looked) and it has Win98 2nd ed. My question is: would it be possible to make this computer a home server without too much trouble? Can I even put WindowsXP on this box? I believe I can put up to PIII-600's in the board so that could help. I was also thinking that I could then have my cable internet connection hit that box first, becoming the firewall (or is it gateway). Anyway, I currently have two computers on my home network and I thought it might be cool to add this to the mix if it wouldn't cost too much. Any thoughts/opinions/tips? Thanks a lot!
That machine would be just fine as a home server, or as a seriously kick-@$$ router or proxy. However, I do advise you to avoid using that (or any) machine as both at once. Since a firewall is outer-edge security, you don't want any vulnerable services running on it. Not to mention the fact that if the box was compromised, you'd lose all of your files. To make a firewall/proxy: You'll need 2 or 3 NIC cards, at least 32MB RAM, and a hard drive of some kind. If you're only using it as a firewall, any stable HDD 300MB or larger will do, as it's only for the OS and storing logs. If you want to use it as a caching proxy, a fast HDD at least 8GB in size is recommended. Finally, you'll need a firewall distro such as the excellent IPCop, which is free and open-source. It's built on a Linux platform, but no Linux experience is necessary to install it and set it up. The whole process takes about 10 minutes, and you never have to touch a command input if you don't want to; the whole thing can be easily administrated from a secure web interface. To make a home fileserver: If you're going to use a Windows system for your fileserver, you'll do well to upgrade to P3 processors. Also, you'll need to purchase a strong antivirus such as PC-Cillin. Alternately, you could use a free Linux distro and simply run a SAMBA server. It's surprisingly easy to set up, especially if you use webmin. Linux takes less than half the resources of Windows, and you won't need an anti-virus (unless you want one to scan your Windows machines). The plus side is that you can have a fast, stable, secure fileserver that can share files to Windows machines (even faster than a real Windows server!), yet you won't have to spend cash on updates for an outdated system. Also, you'll save the money you would have had to spend on Windows licensing for your server. You WERE going to buy a legal copy, RIGHT? Either way you go, you'll do well to add a good Promise ATA/133 or SATA controller, and then at least 2 identical HDDs for a RAID-1, or 3+ identical HDDs for a RAID 5. If your PSU is not adequate for so much new hardware, you should upgrade to a good Enermax or Antec PSU of at least 400watts, the higher amperage the better. Also, a new chassis may also be necessary if you old chassis does not move enough air. Lots of hard drives can cause considerable heat!
