On 05/11/2016 04:15 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: > An underlying question: What should I be reading? > > I wish a blackbox which: > > 1. Connects 4 local machines via Ethernet [WiFi shall *NOT* be > considered] > A. A desktop with WinXP and multiple versions of Debian
This one is your black box: Drop WinXP and use newest kernel Debian (or Slackware but I am biased). It has all the network tools you need either already installed or in the repo. Run WinXP as a Qemu VM and remote in via TigerVNC...if you must. Use qemu to run multiple versions of whatever Connect it to a gigabit switch and a bunch of USB hubs. Check the motherboard specs: although you might only see 2 or 4 USB ports sticking out the back, most motherboards in the past 5 yrs or so have another 1 or 2 USB headers that are unused (each header gets you 2 ports). If you have extra PCI or PCI-x slots, you can add $10 NIC cards that you can bridge with Linux metwork tools. You can keep t connected to a monitor/kb and still use it as a workstation. CAVEAT: if the current CPU does not support virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V), buy a nice quad core (or more) box wit one of the newer i3 or i5 CPUs, or AMD, with an ASUS or MSI motherboard. > B. A laptop with WinXP Pro SP3 whose reason for existence is > running SeaMonkey. Seamonkey is available in Linux distros; I use it in Slackware on occasion. > Historically it is/was my primary machine. Its future is > as a portable. So, dump WinXP and convert to Linux. > C. A laptop dedicated to Linux experiments. I have erased the > HDD as many as > ten times in one week ;/ > D. Misc temporarily connected laptops. > 2. It shall provide multiple USB ports in order that a selection > of flash dives > and a 1 TB HDD can be accessed by any machine. Any Linux box can be set up as a file server via NFS and SAMBA for File sharing. I cast out Win* so now only use NFS to transfer files between linux boxes here. > 3. It *SHALL* connect to the internet via a T-Mobile 4G Hotspot > Z915 connected I am not sure on Linux driver support; the spec sheet says yes. > via USB. The WiFi features have been disabled. I really > wanted a USB cell network > modem. The local T-Mobile outlet was only vendor that didn't > try assaulting me with > their 'smartphone-du-jour' with an atrociously large data > plan. this connection > shall be protected by a firewall. iptables/netfilter is provided by every Linux distro. There are a number of GUI tools to make admin easier. > > How broke will I be? < $100 for 8-16 port gigabit switch, powered USB hubs, Cat5 cables. Maybe some more DRAM for (A) above. $400-600 if you build a nice server box - less if you snag a used one I don't recommend a ARM CPU such as Raspberry Pi since these single board computers can be I/O limited. -Ed _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
