Turn an old computer into an access point

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  • Saturday, December 11, 2010
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  • If you have old computers not in use, you do not rush to dispose of these computers a waste, but use them to make a number of quite useful. In this article we'll show you five suggestions to turn the old computer into the device useful in testing, routing, security, ..


    Installing Ubuntu or another distribution to test Linux
    If you never use the operating system than Windows, now you can explore the world of open source operating system for free by installing Ubuntu. Within an hour, you can download and install the Ubuntu operating system, or one of thousands of other distributors on the old computer. You can even test it before installing anything on your hard drive, using the live CD of some distribution.
    Today Ubuntu has become very popular, especially for new Linux experience. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "I get to be myself thanks to the people around", so that tasks and philosophies of the world it's better to calculate.
    When you boot into a desktop version of Linux that you will find that, although it has many differences, but the OS still has the same functionality as Windows. Start menu is still there - was better organized in Windows - and the icons on the desktop. Ordinary users can edit documents, browse the web and perform other basic tasks.
    The biggest advantage is that you can access hundreds of thousands of free applications. Most distributions are available for everyone to mention that: office suite, email client, calendar, web browser, the photo editing and ...
    With additional applications, you can use Package Manager to search and install the software listed in the store's distributor, or download programs directly from the developer's site and build them up.
    Linux is actually an operating system for many devices and computer networks. The rest of the ideas in this article also use the software for Linux.
    2. Turned into a router with RouterOS or ZeroShell
    You can completely own the advanced networking features, such as the features in Cisco devices, with some small effort. The Linux operating system can turn your old PC into a multi-purpose server LAN. Use it to replace the router firewall by running the network and share Internet access (with NAT). You can even connect the offices together using VPN server and client, providing public access by configuring the gate locked, or used for balancing and automatic failover. The features and solutions here are endless.
    Two projects you need to get these advanced features are RouterOS and ZeroShell.ZeroShell is a free tool and can be run from the CD with profiles stored on a hard drive or USB drive. After configuring the minimum in the console, you can administer it via the web browser on a remote computer. RouterOS has had for years and are widely appreciated. It can be installed directly onto a disk and configure multiple interfaces, including web interface and GUI applications.
    3. Create a LAN file server with FreeNAS
    If implemented several actions to share files online, you can use Network Attached Storage Solutions (NAS) instead of having to create the basic shared with Windows.May notice some NAS (essentially small computers) not cheap, not only that but you have to buy the hard drive. However, you can create your own NAS by installing server NAS server based on FreeBSD, FreeNAS, on the old PC.
    Using a NAS server which means you do not have to worry about the PC remaining queues to access the Windows share. FreeNAS will use your network to a central storage location and always accessible. It also provides control functions and make it easier to share. Can store the information of the user and user authentication. If using the Windows share, you will have to mirror each user account on the computer to get the same protection for sharing.
    Like other NAS servers, FreeNAS allows you the support of the Recycle bin. If you delete a file from Windows share, it will disappear permanently. However, if you delete a file from the FreeNAS share, it will be put into the Recycle bin and you can restore if necessary.
    FreeNAS supports many different sharing protocols: CIFS (SMB / samba) for Windows, NFS for Linux / Uniux, and AFP for Mac OS X. Supports FTP, RSYNC, and iSCSI.There is even a whole host iTunes / DAAP, so you can share files between your iPod.Also FreeNAS also characteristic of a BitTorrent server attachment.
    4. Running a Web server, Email, FTP and other servers with Linux
    Though prices for web hosting can be quite affordable, but you can still want hosting your own website. Can also be useful to develop a local network or work with special applications. Besides, you can host other services, such as mail servers with POP3 and SMTP, file access to FTP server or access databases using the MySQL server.
    Two leading Web server, Apache HTTP server for Linux and Microsoft's IIS server (currently available in the professional version of Windows) are actually free to use.
    When installing Apache, you can only install applications or web server software distribution to install the web server. When using Apache, it is best that you install a server software package. Apache2Triad is a great software package for Windows. If using Linux, you can include the groups LAMP when installing Ubuntu Server Edition.
    5. Turned into a hotspot with ZoneCD
    You may want to provide wireless Internet access for their customers but do not want costly to invest in a hotspot gateway? If you have old computers, you can create Wi-Fi hotspot using tools from PublicIP ZoneCD.
    ZoneCD is a Linux live CD, providing Wi-Fi authentication and allows web content filtering. It boot directly from disk without any changes that occur with hard drives. Needs only minimum requirements 128MB RAM, CD-ROM and floppy disk drive or USB drive to store the configuration. Add to that two Ethernet cards. One to plug into the Internet and to plug into a wireless router or AP.

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