I always seem to have little network and computer projects that I’m working on or in planning. I think it’s probably more accurate for me to say that I have a lot of projects in various states of abandonment. Once in a great while, one or two actually get completed.
I haven’t weaned the rest of the family off of Windows yet and I still have a small need for the Microsoft OS myself. I finally retired the HP mid-tower that was running XP. I replaced with with a newer Dell small form factor desktop running Windows 7. I’ll probably upgrade it to Windows 10. I also set up a Dell laptop with Windows 7 for the grandkids as well.
My most recent little project was to clean up my “server” corner. I took some systems that weren’t being used and wiped their drives. I’m planning to donate most of them. I know of a couple of places I can take them.
However, I won’t be getting rid of all of them. There are a few I’ll be keeping around. One is my old Linux tower, the last PC I built from parts. It seems like I bought that QNAS device ages ago but I still don’t have it configured with users and passwords. I’m not even sure about getting it to work with my Linux systems. It has occurred to me that I could put three large drives into my tower along with a boot drive and use it as a NAS.
I’ve also looked into turning an older Dell desktop into a Linux-based Wireless Access Point. Presently I’m using my old Linksys WRT54G as an access point after turning off the wireless on the U-Verse gateway because it kept dropping out.. On thing that it would do, and I’m not sure if it’s advantage or not, is put the WiFi on a different network from the wired network. The PC WAP would act as a gateway between them, dish out IP addresses to wireless devices, and act as a firewall. Once working, I could reconfigure the Linksys device to extend the wireless network to the other end of the house. It’s an idea that’s beein lying dormant for a while.
When my job went away, I picked up a Lenovo M91p SFF desktop for $125. It has an I-7 processor and I brought it up to 8GB of RAM. I’ve got Windows 7 loaded on it but I still need to install the wife’s applications and move her data to it. I’ll probably upgrade it to Windows 10 eventually,
That leaves me with a few others that I’m holding onto – the Gateway laptop, a Lenovo A57 mid-tower, and the HP mid-tower. If I re-purpose them, it will probably as Linux boxes. Once I deploy the M91 to replace the wife’s Dell, I’m not sure what I’ll do with that. Maybe I’ll put in a bigger hard drive, up the memory and replace the Ultra-Small Form Factor 780 I’m using now.
As I said, several projects in various states of abandonment.
Filed under: Projects | Tagged: computers, Linux, NAS, projects, Windows |
Rick's Tech Stuff 
I replaced Mama’s Dell 780 with the Lenovo M91p and brought it up to 16GB of RAM. She’s been using it for about a week and she hasn’t reported any problems. It should meet her needs for a while.
I also upgraded my HP Pro 6005 to 16GB of RAM but I haven’t noticed much of a difference in performance yet. I’m sure the performance improved but it’s probably quite subtle. I haven’t notice Flash Player crashing when I’m streaming videos since the upgrade. I’d still like to solve the shutdown issue. Unplugging it after shutting down is a bit inconvenient.
Although the M91p specs show that it supports 16GB of RAM, I recently upped it to 24GB and it’s been running fine.
It turned out that the Dell 780 wouldn’t support the 8GB chips so I put them in the Lenovo. The Dell also wouldn’t support the latency on the two 4GB chips I’d bought for the Lenovo so I put them back in to bring it up to 24GB.
I put the older 4GB chips from the Lenovo into the Dell along with two of the original 2GB chips for a total of 12GB which should be sufficient for my needs. I put the other 2GB chips into a third 780 USFF.
Over the weekend I a abandoned two more projects: the Linux PC WAP and the router behind the AT&T gateway. Installing an upgraded access point eliminated the need for them.
I might still place the Linksys WRT54G behind the AT&T gateway and set it up as a wireless access point for house guests. I would have to have my passphrase on anyone else’s device and guests would have access to my network.