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149 Comments
- jimbonotes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+133Let's see if it goes down after it gets a bit of traffic.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -3/+47Specs of the server we are burrying:
Make: Acer Aspire (1997)
Intel Pentium 166 MHz
72MB SIMM RAM
1GB Fujitsu Hard Drive
8x CD-ROM drive
Floppy Drive
Sound Card - Soundblaster 16 compatible
Ethernet Card - D-Link DFE 530TX+ (added later)
Startech 2-port PCI USB card (added later)
Ubuntu Dapper Drake LTS server edition
Apache2
OpenSSH for remote file management
Site made using Nano text editor
Site edited using Dreamweaver for Mac
100% Micro$oft free! - Hurricane, on 10/12/2007, -4/+43LMAO, guess the old relic wasnt ready for the Digg effect.
- UrlorJkron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+37"Next page: Things you will need"
A good bit of bandwidth if you hope to do well on digg.
Kinda neat though. - blacklint, on 10/12/2007, -1/+361997? That's nothing. Web servers have been run off of an Apple Lisa, a computer made from 1983-1986. See http://www.lisa2.com/. If you wanna use something "ancient", use something ancient!
- titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37Heck even 3 days old is ancient on the internets.
- PurpleMeteor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+29If these are the real specs, this is nothing new or interesting. I've installed Linux on my old 20MHz 386 and served websites like this guy did more than 5 years ago and I bet a million of other geeks already did the same in the past 10 years.
- UrlorJkron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28Five years old is ancient on the Internet.
- nixdoctor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21I was wondering what went wrong... when I could see my site down. I rebooted the machine a couple of times... and killed apache a dozen times. But then I found out... I was being dugg, and my internet can upload only 64kBps!!! Obviously, it's crawling now.
- clockworm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20you can go lots lower than an old acer:
http://www.humanclock.com/webserver.php - falcon707, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20This is great, however if you expect large amounts of traffic (like this guy is getting right now), you may want to upgrade to a higher bandwidth (such as T1) and also possibly buy a faster server if speed is of the essence.
- secretrk1313, on 10/12/2007, -9/+25KILL THE SERVER DIGG!!!!!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Wow... he's running ubuntu on a 1gb HDD.
- Agret, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19"Most computers can host a website with software. "
What else are they going to host them with?
Comment buried for the duhhh - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16It's still online. Just slugging away.
- Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15that is nothing... here is an SE/30 from 1989 hosting pages for the past several years:
http://macluddite.homeip.net/ - joelito, on 10/12/2007, -7/+21Digg up so the server goes down <<:D
- seppie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Was to say about the same!
I was running Linux on my 486 as a router/proxy for the longest time ..
Go run a webserver on a Amiga/C64/MSX and then come back so we can try and burry those machines aswell, with our Digg traffic :P - boyter, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18http://stooge.myftp.org/index2.html
This page has all the info.
-------
1. Introduction
Okay, so my neighbor was moving out, and she wanted to sell some stuff. I went there for some furniture, and I noticed an ancient-looking desktop lying around. I enquired, and she said "it's a very old computer - I don't think it's capable of running anymore. So I'll trash it." I asked if I could have it, because I believed I could make it work. She happily handed over the machine to me, for free!
Now I had this lovely old legacy machine! It's an Acer Aspire, manufactured around the year 1997 (about nine years old now).
Initially I thought of replacing windows 98 with Puppy Linux but unfortunately Puppy couldn't configure the network card I bought for it. So I reinstalled windows 98 on it using the age-old CD I've been carrying (yes, I like windows 98 more than XP or Vista). So many people laughed at me when I expressed my desire to host websites from this old desktop. And the result is this page! This page is being hosted from the same old desktop machine that you see in the pic above, and it confirms that even ancient computers are capable of hosting websites!
This single page intends to enable anyone with a computer and an average IQ to host websites from it.
2. Things you will need
* An old machine you want to revive
* Some computer components it may be lacking (e.g. ethernet card, USB card, CDROM drive)
* A light operating system (e.g. windows 95/98, Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux etc)
* An always-on internet connection (DSL/Cable)
* An HTML editor (notepad, Dreamweaver, Frontpage etc)
* A graphic editor (GIMP, MS Paint, Photoshop etc.)
* Another working computer (to look for assistance on the internet while the old machine is being revived)
3. How to do it
A. Preparation and preliminary testing of the machine
First, make sure the computer is working fine. To do this, attach the mouse, keyboard and monitor to the back of the computer. Now plug in the power supply for the CPU as well as the monitor and switch both on. There should be a green LED light somewhere in the front of CPU that should light up. Also, the monitor LED should turn green and you should see something happening on the monitor.
Tips:
* If you're unable to switch the machine on, check your power connections and electric sockets.
* If nothing happens still, this machine probably lacks a working power supply. Look for an appropriate power supply on e-bay or call your computer guru friend whichever you prefer.
* If only one LED lights up (e.g. only the CPU, not the monitor) then that component may be faulty. Again, if the monitor is not lighting up, look for an old monitor on e-bay.
* If the keyboard and mouse plugs do not have an appropriately sized socket at the back of CPU, you probably need an adaptor (USB to ps2 or vice versa). USB devices have a flat plug, PS2 is round with several pins.
B. Hardware needs
The computer may be lacking a CDROM drive, a USB or even an ethernet card. We might do away with USB, but we shall need an ethernet card and a CDROM drive for sure. A CDROM drive will be used to load data and OS on this computer. The ethernet card will connect this machine to the internet in order to be able to host the website. All USB devices may not work with windows 95/98, so you probably won't invest money in buying a PCI USB card. However, if you intend to install Linux on this machine, you can go ahead with buying a supported PCI USB card.
Tips:
* Linux is plagued with driver issues, unfortunately. Before you buy the computer components (e.g. an ethernet card), make sure it's compatible with the distro you intend to intsall. To know which hardware is compatible, check with the wiki or forums or other documentation on the website of your linux distro.
C. Loading an operating system
Once you are able to get both the CPU and monitor working, and the machine boots up, you will most likely see either windows 98 or windows 95. I strongly suggest you try one of the lighter linuxes (puppy, damn small, feather or others) if you have some experience with Linux. If you do not have linux experience, and want to do things the "easy" way, then we shall use windows only.
Installing fresh OS
Reboot the computer and enter it's BIOS to set first boot device as CDROM. Then use the bootable windows or linux CD to install the OS. If you can't get into BIOS, look at the tips below.
Keeping the existing OS
The computer may have come loaded with many applications and files, and ideally we should get rid of all of them to give it a fresh start. If you have a CD of windows 95/98, it's fine - we can use that to install fresh copy of OS on this. If you do not have that, then you can probably do several things on the existing machine to make it more "fresh". Some of the things you can do are:
* Uninstall unneeded applications (e.g. games etc)
* Remove unneeded windows components (e.g. fax programs, outlook express, desktop themes, disk compression etc.)
* Delete user files from "my documents" folder (windows)
Tips:
o While deleting files from "my documents" folder, it's advisable to contact the person from whom you bought the computer. He/she may have stored valuable data on it years ago, and may have forgotten about it. Call him/her before deleting my documents folder. If the files are small enough, you may consider zipping them up and sending the zip file to the previous owner by email.
o You will get into the computer's BIOS by pressing some key(s) and set first boot device to Floppy if you boot from floppy, or CDROM if you have a windows/linux bootable CD. If you cant' get into BIOS, you can download smart boot manager and make a bootable floppy - and then use this floppy to boot from the device of your choice.
o When you start windows for the first time, it may ask you for drivers. Go back to your primary machine (the other working computer) and search for drivers on the internet. Then transfer them to the old computer via floppy or CD and install them. Linux may auto-detect and install some drivers for even newest devices, but if it doesn't - you should use google to look for information on the specific hardware+distro combo.
o The best place to look for linux drivers for specific hardwares are: Hardware manufacturer's website, your distro's forums/wiki, and google.
o In Linux, the folder similar to windows' my documents is the Home folder. Actually the home folder is much more than that, but we assume it to be the linux equivalent of windows' my documents right now. Look for any files that you may find in the home folder of the pre-installed Linux, and contact the original owner of the machine before deleting those files. NEVER DELETE THE HOME FOLDER! If you do so, you may not be able to log back in with the same username and password in a linux machine. You may want to delete selected files from the home folder (e.g. photos, music, word documents) to free up some valuable space.
D. Installing the web server application
The most popular program to host websites is called Apache. It is an open source project at sourceforge, originally made for unix-like operating systems, but later made available for windows too. You can download Apache from this page.. Look for Win32 Binary on that page and download the .msi or .exe file for windows. Once you have downloaded that file, you should double click the downloaded file's icon to start the installation. Installation is fairly simple. If you do not understand something during the installation of Apache on windows, just press "next" button and you'll be absolutely fine! During the installation, be sure to note the location where you are installing Apache. The default installation goes to "c:program filesApache groupApache2", and program groups are made in your windows start menu.
In linux, apache installation is even more simpler. You should simply fire up your package manager (apt-get, dpkg, synaptic or whatever) and search for apache and install it from there. However, the installation directory may differ according to the distro you are using. Check your distro documentation, wiki or forums for this information. Further, components of apache may be installed in different directories (e.g. binaries in usrbin directory and HTML documents containing directory in varwww)
Tips:
o Technically speaking, we are downloading Apache2 rather than Apache, but I have referred to this program as Apache only on this page for easier referencing.
o Apache has problems with Zone Alarm firewall during my testing, and I do not recommend ZoneAlarm with Apache. You can try other firewalls, and let me know which ones worked fine. I shall update this page with your results.
E. Configuring Apache for a basic website
Configuring Apache is actually very easy at the basic level. If all you want to do is to host a single, simple website, you don't need to configure it at all! The default installation of Apache is 100% functional without needing any tweaking whatsoever! In windows, the web server directory is located in "htdocs" folder in Apache install folder. Whoever opens your website by its domain address (e.g. www.example.org) will see the index.html page first. Apache comes with an example page in different languages. You can cut and paste all these pages in some other directory because you might want to read them sometime later.
You can check out the windows program menu for Apache - there are several useful tools out there (e.g. server monitor, configuration files and help). Linux users can find the documentation in man pages, and again on forums, wiki etc.
Tips:
o You can use several softwares to make your website pages. If you have HTML knowledge, you can start with a simple text editor (e.g. notepad or gedit). If you don't like writing the code by hand, you can use some easy to use graphical editors (What You See Is What You Get or WYSIWYG editors) - search for such free WYSIWYG editors on download.com. You can also use professional softwares such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage if you can spare the money to make your work easy.
F. Setting up your website on Apache
For a simple website you made using your HTML editor, just place all your files (with index.html page) in the htdocs folder (varwww directory for Ubuntu linux). For setting up additional server technologies like php and perl, please consult Apache documentation.
G. Starting Apache
Click start button, go to programs menu, point to Apache group ... Control Apache Server ... Start Apache in Console. To start Apache everytime your computer boots up, you can add a shortcut to apache in your startup folder. To do this, right click on "Start apache in Console" in windows start menu, click copy. Then point to "startup" in windows start menu, right click on "startup" and click paste. When you do this, Apache will start every time your computer starts.
H. Testing Apache
Open this link: http://localhost/ in your browser. You should see the web page you made in Apache. If you dont' see this page, check if there is an index.html or index.htm file in "htdocs" folder in Apache installation folder under "program files". If the files exist, check if Apache is running (visible in taskbar with MS DOS icon).
Tip: If Apache is running and you're sure your file is in the htdocs folder, check httpd.conf file in the apache installation directory and look for which directory is defined as the HTTP directory. Also check the firewall configuration.
I. Registering an address on the internet for your site
You can buy a domain from godaddy, or yahoo small business. Or you can get one for free from dyndns or no-ip. In the paid domains approach, you should call the customer care to guide you about binding your IP address to the domain name. In the free services, you can find a link "add dynamic dns" somewhere in the page, and they will automatically detect your IP and bind it to an internet address of your choice. You will have to create an account on the free services. In case you're using an internet service with dynamic IP addressing (most likely if you're a home user), your IP will change every time you reset your modem or restart your computer. In such a case, check if the free service provider has a software that can automatically update your IP - no-ip has one.
J. Testing & advertising
You must test your newly functional website with a friend who is sitting at a remote location. For example, I called my friends in Maryland, Texas and India to do the testing for me. They all could access my website without troubles - so I then sent the link to many of my friends to show off my new stuff (this page, actually)!!!
4. Specs of this machine
Make: Acer Aspire (1997)
Intel Pentium 166 MHz
72MB SIMM RAM
1GB Fujitsu Hard Drive
8x CDROM drive
Floppy Drive
Sound Card - Soundblaster 16 compatible
Ethernet Card - D-Link DFE 530TX+ (added)
Startech 2-port PCI USB card (added)
It also had a 32-bit sound card (SoundBlaster AWE 64) and some Modem with motorola chip - I have taken off both these to free up two PCI slots for the ethernet and USB cards.
5. Warnings & disclaimers
* Be very careful while buying hardware for an old computer. Check the compatibility with motherboard and with the OS (windows/Linux) before you invest money.
* Apache exposes your computer to the internet, which might be unsafe. It's unsafe even otherwise, but having a website gives you publicity, and you're more likely to dig up in a hacker's hitlist. Prepare well for security - don't ask me how! Use google.
* This is an article for enhancement of your technological knowlege and experience. Use this technology carefully.
* Read about zombies, antiviruses and firewalls and this.
* I am not responsible for any damage that occurs to you or your equipment as a result of following this article. Use your own discretion.
* My sincerest apologies to anyone who may be hurt in any way by reading this article.
6. Contact me
anil_robo AT yahoo DOT com - freshgrease, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I hope all goes well for you. I ran an Apache + php/mysql server on a P1 333 mhz Compaq laptop I got for free in Win 2k. Its good for smaller sites, but big forums it really creaks. I'm glad that hunk of junk works for you.
- WiredBob, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14Impressive, it's still going!
- abouthere, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13It's there now - just very very very slow.
- prophase, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Its not dead.. just slow., Maybe his ISP is filtering. I love old comps though... i have a mobo that i bought at e-bay... Came out of a gateway. Dual socket 8 333mhz pII overdrives, 512 ECC 50ns EDO ram. 1x 10,000 rpm scsi disk for OS and swap and stuff, and 4x 200 gig IDE (disclaimer: got a new ATA/100 card for that) running raid 5. Gentoo Linux. It's my file server, router, and i have Azureus running in a X11 session that i use VNC to connect to from any comp in the house. good s#it.
- netburnr, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Yeah, lets see him put a SQL server on that thing, it would die after 2 or 3 people loaded a dynamic page at the same time
- spitfire6006006, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9but there's no pictures...
:) - spitfire6006006, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9awesome, just awesome
- catoutfit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9SQLite would be OK.
http://www.sqlite.org/ - alexp2ad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8It's easy to host a site for family & friends, or for personal use with an old PC, but you really can't expect it to handle Digg traffic, it's taken about a minute to load the front page (without images...). I don't think I'll read the rest somehow.
I host a small photo site for family and friends using ClarkConnect, and that's run off a 486, that also serves up the internet with a firewall over our WiFi, and it's very nice, but I wouldn't post it on Digg. :P - diggduggjoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The site is up, just dang slow. The old PC is holding up it's end, but a 64k pipe, ouch! That may not really be a good test for the server, though. I figure a TI calculator could feed a 64k connection. :)
- nixdoctor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I installed MySQL server on this machine, as an extension of the experiment. It was taking a lot of memory, but was able to keep apache alive even thereafter. All was fine... until everyone started digging my site! My internet connection is for checking emails (DSL), not for hosting websites though :P
- solle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Of course you can host web sites on old hardware. It's just a matter of how much traffic it will be able to handle.
- nixdoctor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Hey, I own that site. I have a pretty slow 3mbps DSL connection, and started off this site just as an experiment. I just got a couple of emails 20 minutes ago, people saying thanks because they were able to set up their own "webservers" in a few hours. The entire world diggs my story (and my site at the same time). Nevermind, this was just an experiment I started few months ago. I wish I could afford a T1 internet connection!
Before you do this yourself, make sure you read your ISP's policy - they may not allow hosting sites at all, or not allow hosting for commercial purposes. (I'm gonna add this line to the guide too).
A mirror for the site is at www.anil-kumar.net/stooge - BenStockwell, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Just loaded for me, after about 10 minutes.
- morphie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Watching it through dugmirror doesn't make any sense now, does it? :P
- joesnow, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7lol ass slow, but hey, you can't really say it's wasting anything.... lol
- midentity, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7more than 5 hours since posted. and still alive. not bad.
can someone please make a top 10 list of old comps and their TTL*
*TimeToLive - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5correct. nowadays the constraint isn't so much the hardware, it's your pipe (non-smoking kind). 486s (and even 386s) have been used (with varying success rates) as servers, so there's no reason why Pentium 1-class machines and greater should have any trouble with a medium load.
- kunjan1029, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7slow but still going...
- spitfire6006006, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6this was awesome and educational
- brinkness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So, do people realize that machines with comparable specs were actually being used to host websites back in the day?
I was hoping for something like that Apple II webserver of years ago :/ Still, I guess it's good for people to know, if they're under the impression that there were no servers prior to 2000. - Axolotl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7As soon as it goes down for good (it loads for me, but is slow) be sure to mark this story as innacurate.
;) - JRitze, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Nope, still working for me.
- clownfart, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Good job man, I've always wanted to do this, but yeah I wouldn't of put it on digg. bye bye site.
- SpoBo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5He should rename it: How to do anything usefull with an Acer.. it realy doesn't matter if it's old or not.
- stephenwq, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10Dugg to Death
http://www.duggmirror.com/linux_unix/How_to_host_a_website_on_an_old_computer/ - lnxaddct, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5If the guy knew how to configure apache properly, the box probably could have handled the digg effect, assuming that it is serving static pages. Bandwidth would be his main problem.
- NiX0n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I wonder if he's using Cable or DSL? If so, I'd have to assume that his ISP is ready to murder him after this digg encounter. It's probably that limitation of bandwidth that's keeping his box up. I wonder who his ISP is. I notice he doesn't have to use some alternate port.
btw, it's easy to keep a server up if all you're doing is serving static pages with little pictures. - Phantom76, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I can still access the site (around 204 diggs till now), but pretty slow.
- mookieXL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Still alive after 254 diggs. Digg-proof p166, not bad at all.
- biffta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Slow yes, dead no. She's still going!!!
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