Steven,

My laptop hard drive fries after three days of operation.  Yes, I
found this out the hard way - I'm on my third drive (good thing
it has a 3 year warranty).  Listen to Der Hans.

I saw a Celeron 600 with an 8 GB hard drive and 64 MG RAM for $350 
just before Christmas, so if your budget is tight, why not go with
a box so you can replace the parts easily?  Cheaper than a laptop.

George


Gary Nichols wrote:
> 
> I helped a client of mine set up this exact scenerio about a year or so ago.
> He was running a Toshiba laptop with two pcmcia network cards... one going
> to broadband, the other to his inside lan.  I setup dhcpd, bind, sendmail,
> apache and ip firewalling on it... and it's been running ever since.  No
> reported heat problems, and virtually no down time (aside from power outages
> and such).
> 
> It can be done... just make sure that your laptop doesn't have heating
> problems.  It would probably behoove you to go with der.hans's suggestion of
> an old PC with some ram though.  Should a hardware component fail, you can
> just run to fry's. :))
> 
> ~ ciao ~
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Gary Nichols  RHCE        gary@neoplanet.com
> Network Operations Mgr       NeoPlanet, Inc.
> http://www.neoplanet.com     Penguin Powered
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> 
> |-----Original Message-----
> |From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> |[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Steven
> |Martindale
> |Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 10:11 PM
> |To: Plug Discuss Mailing List
> |Subject: Laptop as a server?
> |
> |
> |I've been struck by an idea and wonder if anyone on the list has done
> |something like it.  I've been wanting to put together a modest computer to
> |use as a dial-up server for a modest network (Hey, only two working
> |computers in the apartment currently).  My current desktop computer is
> |running a bit too hot right now to consider leaving it on for long lengths,
> |and my old box is mostly put back together (pentium 100 on an old Intel
> |board I can't seem to find any documentation for), but I've only got one
> |monitor and as of yet no KVM switch (Yes I said to working computers in the
> |apartment, the other is my Sister's not mine).
> |
> |So I got to wondering, I keep running across listings for older laptops for
> |$350-400 and lower.  Later 486 models and early pentium and pentium clones.
> | Has anyone tried simply running a laptop of a wall-wart rather than
> |battery and using it as a modest home network server?  When I didn't need
> |to work on it I could simply fold down the monitor (hmm, well as long as it
> |isn't a model that shuts down when you do that) to keep the keyboard from
> |getting poked and set it aside.
> |
> |Now I know the newer laptops can get quite hot, but would I be likely to
> |have heat problems with say a pentium 100?
> |
> |Sure it wouldn't be a "great" server, but I'd think it ought to be at least
> |adequate, and best of all no need to either get a second monitor (taking up
> |the last of the free space on the desk) or a KVM switch.  Though I would
> |need to more than likely get a PCMCIA network card and modem (though if the
> |laptop has a serial port then I could simply plug in my external modem).
> |
> |
> |It's an idea anyway.
> |
> 
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