Random Posts
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Homelab: 3 Turning laptops into mini-servers
One of the most common e-waste sources out there is laptops, slower than other computers and often not upgradable, lacking ability to change peripherals, like […]
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PC water cooling: Maintenance
When watercooling a computer the goal is lower temperature and/or better noise to performance ratio, while also allowing for much smaller footprint with quite high […]
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Amiga next-gen build: sam440ep
Amiga is a name of a computer and Operating System of the 80’s and early 90’s before a slow self-destruction in various ways, however it […]
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Homelab: 2 Tiny 24 Core virtualization Computation with hacked hardware
For some time a good way to get cheap and powerful computers, outside of cutting edge gaming or single-core heft, have been to get used […]
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Headphone repair
When headphones wear out it’s not unusual to effect the soft fabric parts only, so can eb saved by replacement, or you can prevent failure […]
Homelab: 1 25 Year old computer as a firewall: 60Mbps throughput
If you have spend some time around a computer interested individual you may at one time or another have come across the suggestion that a good use for an old computer is as a firewall and router around your home. The argument is however based in how, for many years, your leftover computers would vastly outperform any consumer level router by far in any measurable metric, but is this still true, and how old? What is necessary to be able to stream 4K HDR video content locally?
I decided to re-awaken my families first ever x86 PC, a Pentium II 300mhz from 1996. This computer had served a similar task around 15years ago but since then been boxed up due to a lot of moving around. We’ll, now starting a family of my own suddenly there is a lot of devices that can make good use of a wired connection. So with a number of leftover parts we have a 6port PFsense very capable little firewall, all be it using an old build of the software to fit it within the capacities of this ancient hardware.
Not enough of a challenge though, I decided to cut down the case to a 4th of its original size, cut apart and reassemble the front, and turn the motherboard sideways to fit on the bottom. Really nice to shrink computers, makes room for more of them… Keeping this cool and quiet are two Scythe fans, a slim 10mm thick, cut down in their speed by a manually adjusted voltage regulator.
Happily, the old thing still manages a throughput of over 60Mbps double what I’d require to have it serve content to a 4k HDR TV, the most taxing thing it ever have to do. However, it still sits downstream from the real Firewall and UTM taking care of the rest of the network, it’ll have to live out what’s rest of its life taking care of some less essential services. Still not bad for a computer that otherwise most probably would have been thrown away over a decade ago.
Homelab: 4 Family & apartment friendly server cabinet
Homelab: 3 Turning laptops into mini-servers
Homelab: 2 Tiny 24 Core virtualization Computation with hacked hardware