We are currently paying about $40/month for the two phone lines that we used to use to connect Grex to our old 28.8 Internet connection at ICNET. Since we got the ISDN line, these lines have been lying dormant. Question: what should we do with these lines? One of them is at ICNET (we pay them $20 a month for it), so we can't use it for anything other than the original use. The other one could be put into our regular dial-in queue if we so desired. Of course we could also just cancel both lines and save $40/month.26 responses total.
Weren't we thinking of using them together to download our mail, thereby eliminating the competition between mail and users for resources?
Does that work? If so, would one line suffice? Could we have one line dedicated to mail transfer, and if so, would there be any significant benefit?
If we're going to use it for mail, we need both lines (one for each end of the connection).
Yeah, it would work. The problem with this plan is that we need a computer to set up as a mail machine. Probably a 486 PC would suffice. I think we have most of the parts of such a machine except the CPU and the disk itself. Once we have the machine, we need to install Unix on it (one of the Free BSDs. Maybe OpenBSD). This isn't going to be as hard a process as setting up a new Grex machine, because users will not be logging on to this machine, so security is much simpler.
uhmmm.....I htink I can get a 486 DX processor for like $30...but I"m not too confident of the source <and there would be no waranty or anything... <local computer surplus store...>
Actually, I have a 486 DX-33 chip that Grex could have for free, if it will help. (I don't have a motherboard, though.)
I have a DX/2 66 that I'll donate. I haven't run it, though so I'll check that it is alive. I may be able to come up with a motherboard as well, but it also is currently in the forgotten state of operation. Stand by.
mnet has some 386 boxes, and they might be willing to sell one. could we then just swap out the processor?
Nope. 386 motherboards aren't compatible with 486 CPUs (except in the case of some CPUs designed as upgrades for 386 boards, but those won't work as well as a real 486 on a real 486 board).
Silly kids.. The staff people that have access to the utilization graphs for the internet link should be able to see that average internet utilization is such that you could down half of the isdn line and nobody would notice. The traffic paterns are so consistent it's remarkable. Utilization is 63.1k on average. It peaks up to the full line size, but that's only 128k. As for what to do with the phone line, i'm not sure. the system has been very responsive though with the fast net connection (as for no lag), so I would not be concerned about link utilization (yet).
I'ld like to upgrade from a 486 sx if anybody has a better cpu to fit for sale. Drop me a line.
I've never seen those link utilization graphs. How does one see them?
I'll send Jan mail with the URL for the graphs. I don't know if Jared wants his web server being hit by lots of Grexers looking at them. We seem to occasionaly hit peak capacity on the ISDN line, but it's normally about half full. We could cram some more stuff down it if we wanted to, but I think the rationalle for using a separate link for mail was to save excess capacity on the ISDN link for future use.
I want no actual grexers hitting that page it's for staff use only
We should consider those analog lines to be of our total Internet link. If we are worried about the higher (suprise) cost of our ISDN lines, we can save money by scaling back from 128 + 28.8 to just 128.
Re: buidling a 486 system to user as a mail server. Dan was saying the ohter day that he wasn't confident that the motherboard in the box we have works. So we may (or may not) need more than a CPU and a disk.
Now that I think of it, I think it was the CPU that was dead, not the motherboard. I don't know.
486 boxes are being listed regularly in the classifieds in the AA News, for varying prices...
I've tested the system. I have for grex at no charge: 486 DX/2 66 VESA LB motherboard (8 30 pin SIMM slots) Trident VLB video card VLB IDE & I/O card I'll also donate setup and testing if I get a case and drives to go in it. If grex has a dead system, maybe that solves the case problem?
I've got a hard drive around here somewhere that Jeff Kaplan donated to Grex, so that could go in it if it's big enough. I forget how big that drive is.
I've got a couple of cases (desk, not tower). If you need one, let me know.
Grex has a 486 case we can use.
Cool. How might I be able to put this thing together for grex? Where would this case be, and how might I get my hands on it?
The case is in the pumpkin. I'll be happy to facilitate getting it to you to set up. Either meet you at the pumpkin if you want to pick it up, or deliver it someplace convenient. We need to find the drive from Kaplan and figure out if it is big enough for our purposes. Since this machine will be buffering mail, it will probably need to have a moderately large drive. However if the Kaplan drive is at least big enough to install OpenBSD or NetBSD or whatever on, then it would be worth getting started with. We can always install a second drive.
I'd recommend FreeBSD I've had incredible stability with the 3.0-SNAP122597 version on nether.net. I can get you time to install it on a fast internet connection also at ITI or some other place.
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