Using older machines for the internet
Hi everyone, Whilst I have played a little with Linux over the years, I wouldn't say I was an expert by any means, and I have just joined this list. I work for a school in London, and we have a pile of Pentium 200 machines, with 32MB and 2Gb disks gathering dust in the corner. Rather than bin them I am keen to put them to good use as internet terminals (probably fat client) We are going to be running a RM Connect 3 network, that is Win2k/XP as our main network. The users would have to be authenticated by the Win2k domain, but other than that I cant foresee any restrictions. Would these machines be able to cope with this? They would only need to run a web browser, and possibly email. So nothing fancy. Just Log In > Browse internet > Log off I also have the use of a 300MHz server 256MB 10Gb. I figured I could use the server as a samba server, which will allow me to authenticate to the Win2k domain I think, with the clients running a stripped down GUI with a browser. Any ideas on the best GUI/browser combination to use? Anyone tried something like this? I'd like to hear from you! And any other ideas/advice/input is greatly appreciated. Thanks all, Dan
On Wednesday 14 May 2003 9:08 am, crowhurst wrote:
I work for a school in London, and we have a pile of Pentium 200 machines, with 32MB and 2Gb disks gathering dust in the corner. These machines will not perform at all well as fat clients - unless you don't want to run a desktop. However they are ideal candidates for LTSP thin clients (www.ltsp.org). Depending on the size of the pile, you may need a beefy server to drive them though.
I also have the use of a 300MHz server 256MB 10Gb.
This will run out of steam with a very small number of thin clients attached. Cheers -- Phil Driscoll
crowhurst
Any ideas on the best GUI/browser combination to use?
Possibly the svgalib version of links, launched from inittab. That's assuming that you really only want a web browser. Webmail is probably a better idea than a full mail client on that setup.
Anyone tried something like this? I'd like to hear from you!
I did something like this a few years ago at a university, to have public access terminals for an information service. 486s. -- MJR http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ IM: slef@jabber.at This is my home web site. This for Jabber Messaging. How's my writing? Let me know via any of my contact details.
crowhurst
The users would have to be authenticated by the Win2k domain, but other than that I cant foresee any restrictions.
That'll teach me to read it twice. svgalib links is still possible, but you'll need a simple login script sat in front of it, possibly a graphical one using samba and svgalib? Shouldn't be too hard. MJR
participants (3)
-
crowhurst -
MJ Ray -
Phil Driscoll