Re: [seul-edu] Advice on Linux servers

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

> It is intended for SME and SOHO, but it could also be used 
> in schools.
> It is more expensive than a box out of the shelf, but 
> i guess it should perform much better. 
> What are pros/cons of chosing a specfically assembled hardware
> to set up a router?               

We tend to use old hardware that we get donated. The primary consideration
is reliability (which the older stuff tends to have.) The primary problem
is fans stopping. If using an older thing, there's only a powersupply fan
to worry about.

We tend to use a floppy based setup so don't have a hard drive to worry
about.

The only final issue is performance. I have found that a 486-33 is too
slow to use a 384k connection reliably. (I am using an old pentium 100
which works fine.) I will test with a 486-66 when I get a chance. I'm
using the LRP setup (linuxrouter.org) and it works fine.

I'm using several 386-40's with the latest USR modems. I have setup them
up with 40MB hard drives and they do demand dial for our school. We use
several phone lines with squid caches on several servers. The squids are
siblings and we use round robin dns on the caches to spread the load
across all workstations.

Les Richardson
H. Hardcastle School
Edam, Sk. Canada