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 <crowhurst@hatchend.harrow.sch.uk> wrote:
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 <crowhurst@hatchend.harrow.sch.uk> wrote:
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)
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crowhurst -
MJ Ray -
Phil Driscoll