Running a Server

Hello.

I run some small websites and am thinking of getting an old 300 mhz
computer and running it as a server at home.

I have an adsl connection. From what I understand, the upstream is nothing
great, but for my uses, I believe that this would be fine. I also consider
running redhat linux as the operating system (shrike set for server).

What would you say to this configuration? Would a 300 mhz pc with 64mb
or ram be good enough for some websites (http://www.mcleancrew.org,
http://www.omarbohsali.com) and several others? These are low traffic, and
so is my budget. What do you think?

Thanks,

Omar

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 21:27:05 GMT, "Omar Bohsali"
wrote:

Hello.

I run some small websites and am thinking of getting an old 300 mhz
computer and running it as a server at home.

I have an adsl connection. From what I understand, the upstream is nothing
great, but for my uses, I believe that this would be fine. I also consider
running redhat linux as the operating system (shrike set for server).

What would you say to this configuration? Would a 300 mhz pc with 64mb
or ram be good enough for some websites (http://www.mcleancrew.org,
http://www.omarbohsali.com) and several others? These are low traffic, and
so is my budget. What do you think?

Thanks,

Omar

Yes, a 300MHz-based system is plenty fast enough for an ADSL
webserver. Primarily you'll want something with busmastering PCI,
UDMA IDE controller instead of PIO-mode. In other words, Pentium 2 or
Super Socket 7 or newer would be preferred, but a Pentium 166 on a TX
or HX motherboard would probably be enough too, since the ADSL
upstream bandwidth is going to be the bottleneck.

If the total size of frequently-served files + OS is 64MB, you
ought to consider adding more memory, i'd go with at least 128MB if
it's handy, though 64MB WOULD work, or even less, just a matter of
how often you want the HDD accessed.


Dave

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 21:27:05 GMT, "Omar Bohsali"
wrote:

Hello.

I run some small websites and am thinking of getting an old 300 mhz
computer and running it as a server at home.

I have an adsl connection. From what I understand, the upstream is
nothing
great, but for my uses, I believe that this would be fine. I also
consider
running redhat linux as the operating system (shrike set for server).

What would you say to this configuration? Would a 300 mhz pc with
64mb
or ram be good enough for some websites (http://www.mcleancrew.org,
http://www.omarbohsali.com) and several others? These are low traffic,
and
so is my budget. What do you think?

Thanks,

Omar

Yes, a 300MHz-based system is plenty fast enough for an ADSL
webserver. Primarily you'll want something with busmastering PCI,
UDMA IDE controller instead of PIO-mode. In other words, Pentium 2 or
Super Socket 7 or newer would be preferred, but a Pentium 166 on a TX
or HX motherboard would probably be enough too, since the ADSL
upstream bandwidth is going to be the bottleneck.

If the total size of frequently-served files + OS is 64MB, you
ought to consider adding more memory, i'd go with at least 128MB if
it's handy, though 64MB WOULD work, or even less, just a matter of
how often you want the HDD accessed.


Dave

awesome. do you have any recommendations for the Operating System? I was
thinking of Redhat Linux 9, as I mentioned previously. Do you think it would
run well?

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 23:25:11 GMT, "Omar Bohsali"
wrote:


"kony" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 21:27:05 GMT, "Omar Bohsali"
wrote:

Hello.

I run some small websites and am thinking of getting an old 300 mhz
computer and running it as a server at home.

I have an adsl connection. From what I understand, the upstream is
nothing
great, but for my uses, I believe that this would be fine. I also
consider
running redhat linux as the operating system (shrike set for server).

What would you say to this configuration? Would a 300 mhz pc with
64mb
or ram be good enough for some websites (http://www.mcleancrew.org,
http://www.omarbohsali.com) and several others? These are low traffic,
and
so is my budget. What do you think?

Thanks,

Omar

Yes, a 300MHz-based system is plenty fast enough for an ADSL
webserver. Primarily you'll want something with busmastering PCI,
UDMA IDE controller instead of PIO-mode. In other words, Pentium 2 or
Super Socket 7 or newer would be preferred, but a Pentium 166 on a TX
or HX motherboard would probably be enough too, since the ADSL
upstream bandwidth is going to be the bottleneck.

If the total size of frequently-served files + OS is 64MB, you
ought to consider adding more memory, i'd go with at least 128MB if
it's handy, though 64MB WOULD work, or even less, just a matter of
how often you want the HDD accessed.


Dave

awesome. do you have any recommendations for the Operating System? I was
thinking of Redhat Linux 9, as I mentioned previously. Do you think it would
run well?


Once it's up and running the only thing it'll be doing is serving,
right? Any OS will run fine doing this simple webpage serving, the
overheat on most OS is when users are multitasking and running a lot
in the background. There are tutorials on the 'net, you ought to do
a Google search for some to get an idea what you need, as it's a lot
easier for you to analyze each option, knowing what your specific
needs are. If you want Redhat 9 that should work fine, though for a
limited-memory system you might find something pre-made, with a
smaller memory footprint, but I don't know what's out there, the best
for a system with lesser memory.


Dave

"Omar Bohsali" wrote in message ...
"kony" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 21:27:05 GMT, "Omar Bohsali"
wrote:

Hello.

I run some small websites and am thinking of getting an old 300 mhz
computer and running it as a server at home.

I have an adsl connection. From what I understand, the upstream is
nothing
great, but for my uses, I believe that this would be fine. I also
consider
running redhat linux as the operating system (shrike set for server).

What would you say to this configuration? Would a 300 mhz pc with
64mb
or ram be good enough for some websites (http://www.mcleancrew.org,
http://www.omarbohsali.com) and several others? These are low traffic,
and
so is my budget. What do you think?

Thanks,

Omar

Yes, a 300MHz-based system is plenty fast enough for an ADSL
webserver. Primarily you'll want something with busmastering PCI,
UDMA IDE controller instead of PIO-mode. In other words, Pentium 2 or
Super Socket 7 or newer would be preferred, but a Pentium 166 on a TX
or HX motherboard would probably be enough too, since the ADSL
upstream bandwidth is going to be the bottleneck.

If the total size of frequently-served files + OS is 64MB, you
ought to consider adding more memory, i'd go with at least 128MB if
it's handy, though 64MB WOULD work, or even less, just a matter of
how often you want the HDD accessed.


Dave

awesome. do you have any recommendations for the Operating System? I was
thinking of Redhat Linux 9, as I mentioned previously. Do you think it would
run well?

I would recommend Redhat 6.2 because it's fast and stable. I've got
it on a P2 350MHz machine with 192Mb. I'm running it without a GUI
which saves memory and CPU usage quite a bit. If you use redhat 9
then the GUI would probably be too much for your machine. RH 6.2 does
come with a GUI but I choose not to use it, it makes configuration
harder but gives great performance. I only installed RH6.2 yesterday
but I hope to make it into a server. Hopefully it will run a telnet
server, Soldier of Fortune 2 server, Counter strike server, an ftp
server and maybe a Web server.