Computer Recycling for the moderately geeky.

[MultimediaMan]

Homebuilt Router/Fileserver/Printserver: I thought long and hard about an 8 port Linksys or Netgear router, either of these would cost about $150 USD to my door. Then I looked around and found a better solution in my junkpile...

Spare parts special:

No-name Mid-tower
No-name 300w PSU
No-name Scavenged-From-A-Dead-PSU 80mm Fan.
Abit BE-6 Motherboard (Spit)
Intel P2 400
128MB No-name PC-100 RAM
Adaptec ANA6911 10BT PCI NIC
Adaptec ANA62011 10/100 PCI NIC (32 bit mode)
ATI Rage II-C AGP card (spit)
Western Digital WDAC38400 8.4 GB HDD (IDE)
Western Digital WDBB45 45 GB HDD (IDE)
No-name (Oooold Name) CD-ROM (IDE)
Iomega Zip 100 Internal (IDE)
WinME (OK, OK, OK....You can't use the damn HPT366 IDE Controller in Win2K/XP, OK?)

No Monitor, No keyboard, No Mouse
TightVNC as the administrative interface.

Cost?

I think about $30.00US for the PSU, and $70.00US for the 45GB HDD (eBay Dutch), a sparkly new 8 port Linksys switch was $50.00US: the rest I had lying around.

Not a bad way to get yourself more for the same or less...

[ZokesPro]

Re: Computer Recycling for the moderately geeky.

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
WinME (OK, OK, OK....You can't use the damn HPT366 IDE Controller in Win2K/XP, OK?)

You can't? Why not?

[xortam]

My old 486/66 (w/ P83 Overdrive) only has 16 MB (cost me $400!!!) so there's only a few things its good for these days. I never got finished with trying to make it into a NetWare backup/print/file server.

Some of Linksys's competitors make routers that include print servers at very competitive prices. I wish Linksys made an 8-port (including 1 USB port) router which includes a print server. They do make a stand-alone print server.

[MultimediaMan]

Zokes...just try it once...ONCE. Spell H.A.R.D.L.O.C.K.