12 uses for your computer
Here is a list of some Linux distributions and tools that you could use to create a firewall/router for your home:- FREESCO
- IPCOP
- Smoothwall
- Firestarter
- Coyote Linux Personal Firewall
- Shorewall/Shoreline
- Mason
- Vyatta
- floppyfw
- FireHOL
- Guarddog
- Turtle
- m0n0wall
- Endian
- pfSense
- LutelWall
- Zorp
- ClarkConnect
- Devil Linux
- Sinux
- Kaladix
- SafeSquid
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File Server
With an old computer and a couple of hours effort, you can have a nifty little file server available on your network.- FreeNAS
- Samba
- iFolder
- NASLite
- Openfiler
- CryptoBox
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Print Server
Nicholas Fong has a greattutorial on setting this up.
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Fax Gateway
Faxing is so 1985. But, a lot of people and companies still rely on this technology to keep their business running. With a bit of effort and some old computer hardware, you can set up a HylaFAX server to manage and control all of your incoming and outgoing faxes. Plus, you could save a few trees because you are using less paper
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Web/FTP Server
With the advent of LAMP server installations, it is relatively trivial for someone to create a web server. This will give you the ability to create your own websites in house before you distribute them to the world or you can simply use it as an intranet site to keep your busy family in touch.
Here are a few tutorials on setting up a web server:- Setting up a local web server in Debian Linux
- The Apache Web Server
- Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) LAMP Server Setup
- Quick Linux Server
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SSH/SCP Server
SSH and SCP provide you with a lot of very powerful abilities so that you can remotely access your network and copy files securely. One of the best ways is to set up aFreeNAS box, enable SSH and then connect to it using an SCP client such as WinSCP to transfer files or PuTTY for accessing your network.
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Anti-Spam Server
We all hate spam. So, use your old computer to get rid of it! By using SpamAssassin on a Linux box, you can quickly stem the flood of incoming spam. I have also found a really good tutorial on the subject (Sorry, I had to use the Google cache.).
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Proxy Server
Most users have the same webpages that they visit on a regular basis. Each time that they go to these websites, they need to go and download all of the files again. While this is not a terribly big issue if you have lots of bandwidth and it is not being used very much, it can become an issue if your are a high bandwidth user.
You can also use it to filter out undesirable content.- Setup a transparent proxy with Squid in three easy steps
- Minimal Linux Proxy
- 3Proxy
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Thin Client
ThinStation
You may also want to check out AnywhereTS to help with the setup.
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Voice Mail Server
VOCP System
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Media Server
More people are going away from their CD and DVD players and heading for MP3 and AVI files. A media server is a great way to use that old box.
Here are some resources to get you rockin’!- Jinzora
- Firefly
- TVersity
- MediaTomb
- LIVE555
- MythTV
- Icecast
- Helix
- LinuxMCE
- Darwin Streaming Server
- GNUMP3D
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Bittorrent Box
To make all bittrorent stuff look much neater and cleaner. For a good tutorial on how to do this, check out Nerdica.
