Useful? Computer

MarkW7

MarkW7

MarkW7

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Joined
30 Nov 2008
Posts
731
Location
Manchester
Hello everybody. :p

I've run into a Few Problems,
My Situation:

Dell Optiplex GX1.
P3, 500MHz
Max Ram; 768MB

I have a few ideas on what to use it as but nothing concrete.

Ideas: :)

1. Home Security - Will have 2x USB cameras plugged into it BUT i want to view them locally, eg. 192.168.2.1 or even better anywere i go via laptop. [I am not willing to port forward or put security at risk]

2. Some sort of machine again i can connect to as a web proxy, firewall thing when i am on the go with my laptop [ Mainly school] there server rocks [well sucks for me because everything is blocked] so i was thinking i can connect back to this someway and just go on anything?

3. Router/ something similar?

Any other ideas?

Now down to an OS.

The harddrive is blank and i have the disks to:

Windows XP
Backtrack 3
Crunchbang [wont run because of only 4mb GPU]
Anything free i can download and burn.

Seems a shame to do nothing with it.

Fully open to all ideas, everything is welcomed.
Thank you, Mark.

;)
 
1. Possible, why dont you want to port forward if its apporpriatly passworded its not a problem.
You could use the USB camera and then something like Windows Media Encoder to push out the video stream would probably bethe cheapest way to do it, easiest would probably with IP cameras.

2. Proxy is possible but would probably be quite hard to set up. You could just try remote desktoping in to it from school but will require port forwarding and the ports being open on your school network.

3. If you really wanted you could set up a Linux server to deal with DHCP, DNS and maybe some sort of NAS. For the NAS option might be worth getting a PCI SATA controller and putting more disks in.

Trouble is you got to ask yourself how much is it worth doing as that thing wont be very energy efficient so having it running 24/7 might clock up some electricity bills.
 
1. I'm a bit unsure about port forwarding unless i did have very good security measures to cover it.

2. I'm willing to give anything ago :D - Same with ports and i don't know if school's will be open.

3. I'm unsure what the last option involves.

Electirc bills may be a bit of an issue, - would it be possible to have it as a webcam security base, a machine i can connect to when i'm away [With my laptop] so i can safely browse the web therefore meaning no blocked sites like school.

Thanks for the reply.
 
What's your level of computing expertise? You can redirect every firefox call down an ssh tunnel to your computer at home, which acts on them and sends the results back through ssh. This would be easiest with linux running on one end if not both,

I did this briefly to speed up the internet over wireless, as ssh offers compression. Result was slight increase in latency but improvement in throughput. Can't remember the specifics, features setting a couple of options in firefox. The main thing is whether or not you can ssh between the two, so I'd suggest trying that.

My uni lets ssh through in all directions, so good odds your school does. Have a play with that, and report back once you've got ssh access to your home computer from school.
 
Audigex said:
Install linux on it, you can easily do all three and use it to stream media accross the network when you're at home aswell.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, so it is possible to get all 3 into 1?
What Linux would you recommend?
Do you know any software that can get my USB web cams a local ip so i can get them accross the network?
 
i reccomend ubuntu server/desktop for a linux install, although it does need some specific machine requirements you will have to look it up
 
Ubuntu desktop will be nasty on a 500mhz machine but will run. Depends a bit on how patient you are. I'd do a minimal install of debian and go from there, alternative options are puppy and dsl. Puppy is the friendliest option if you're new to linux. If you are completely new, I think you'll find it a sharp learning curve if the above 3 points are the first things you attempt.

edit: ipcop + a standard ethernet card would make it a very, very good router
 
Can i get all 3 in one?

I'm not that new too linux i've got the basic knowledge and i've triple booted, XP, ubuntu and BT (through terminal).
And i'm willing to pick things up.
 
school computers are norm more restricted then home pcs, unless its an basic school network with an school proxy

very easy way is ultravnc and 1 poke in the router port (do not use default port on ultravnnc any thing above 10000 is ok) mite not be very secure but it work as it can be web based (java if your scool does not block that)
 
Got debian to start; what do i choose??

post15.png


I'll check vnc out when i have done this :D
Thanks.
 
Desktop environment, for starters :-)

I would've gone with Xubuntu though, XFCE desktop on ubuntu's core and does most things nicely - plus you can use most debian apps :-)
 
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