Hi, Someone Electro, Styx, Nigel Goodwin, mstechca, DirtyLude,
I am a little surprised by the response to my post, it looks like
others have already been going along these lines.
Replies in same order as posts ....
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Hi Someone Electro,
You mention that using a PIC for this would be slow, and that windows
networking can get complicated.
Well i didn't really know if a PIC could be set up to do it,so i take
it that a PIC can be programmed do it. As for the speed, well this
would only be for stuff between my own little set of PCs, so i don't
think the speed would be much of a problem.
However, i do agree that setting up networking can often be a right
pain, and sometimes won't work properly even when its been working
properly for a while.
And if its gonna play up, then i would want to get proper graphical
monitor interface in order to do what i can to kick it into working.
So that means using a Mobo and an Operating System,
and setting it for use with a remote desktop.
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Hi Styx,
Thanks for that nslu2 info, if i go for a USB hard drive or two,
i may well get one of those.
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Hi Nigel,
Yes, i think i will go along with the Mobo idea, pretty much as you
mention in your post. I have no experience of Linux, i was thinking
of a stripped down Win95/b or maybe Win3.2 which i understand can be
as small as a couple of floppies.
But maybe i should get to know a bit of Linux.
I am told it is very customisable .... and need not be very big,
although i think it would be more than a few floppies.
All i would need is ethernet capable and short start up time.
I did not know such an item could be purchased,
i will look for prices.
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Hi Someone Electro,
I doubt if i would need anything better than the usual 10Mb Eth Cards,
yes it would be mainly personal stuff pictures, files, stuff like that.
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Hi mstechca,
I hadn't even thought about the power consumption, but no i won't be
expecting it to run from batteries. I would be quite happy to plug
it into the mains supply assuming its only a mobo with 'Wake on Lan'
i would not expect much of a demand when its 'sleeping'.
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Hi Someone Electro,
Yes, thats pretty much the way i am thinking now after looking through
this thread ... an old Mobo with a minimal OS and an ethernet card,
set up just for access to maybe four hard drives. Including an A-Drive
might be necessary to get it running. Dunno what sort of power i would
be looking at, but you can get 300 to 400 M/cycle processors that run
with only a heat sink - no fan. So maybe ten watts overall, bit more
if a hard drive kicks in ... (i could be way off)
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Hi DirtyLude,
Didn't really understand all of what you said, but i think you meant
it would be quite difficult to set up a PIC to deal with networking and
multiple drives.
I'm sure you're right, after looking through this thread i will be
trying to do this using an old mobo.
You also mention Linux like many others.
Maybe i should get to know a little Linux.
I do like your 'Headless Server' i especially like the name 'Headless
Server' and i like the look of it, i hope mine looks as good!
In fact, if you dont want it, i would love to have it, i would
cheerfully pay the postage for it! i think its just what i want!
Best Regards to you all,
John