Can I build a Web Server From a Old Laptop

M

MidwestComputerCenter

New Member
Hi Guys
I got a question to ask. Can I build a web server from a old laptop? if I can what specs of laptop would I need to use and what else do I need to make my own web server off a old laptop?
 
Just Apache for a webserver, which is something you will need to install onto the machine.... Google it for instructions
 
MidwestComputerCenter said:
Hi Guys
I got a question to ask. Can I build a web server from a old laptop? if I can what specs of laptop would I need to use and what else do I need to make my own web server off a old laptop?
Click to expand...

it's actually very easy, and the spec need not be high at all. It may be best to install the web server on a linux box, but this may be a little more difficult

Provided that you machine can support something like win 98 then i think you will be ok. What are the specs of the machine?

If you want to access your server from the outside world you'll need either a static IP, or the use something like www.dyndns.org
 
and the specs of the laptop is this CPU
IBM ThinkPad T21 Intel Pentium-3 800 MHz
HARD DRIVE 20 GB
MEMORY 256 MB
CD-ROM CD
DISPLAY 14.1" TFT
DISPLAY ADAPTER Integrated AGP 2x Graphics card 8MB, Max res 1600x1200
and i was thinking also adding a External Hard Drive if I can do that or not
 
I would only suggest trying to run a non 3d enviroment of linux, which will have an option during the installer to load apache. For a newer user i suggest installing webmin as well, which will allow you to control all your servers through one web based interface. That way you don't have to edit the cfg files with a text editor.
 
which Linux should I run? because I have red hat 9,Debian,Ubuntu,SUSE 8 or 9,mandrake 10.1,Fedora 5,6 i think,Gentoo and i also got windows server 2003, and 2000
 
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webmin makes managing your server very easy since its a nice little web based control panel. It can configure and control just about any sever type, including apache.

I suggest looking into that route and see where to go from there.
 
MidwestComputerCenter said:
ok how much space does windows server 2000 take? and would 256mb memory and 20gb hard drive work for windows server 2000?
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No, its not really worth your time running a resource hungry server OS like windows 2k server on a laptop. Last time I had a small web server running I had win2k server running on a P3 800Mhz E3 chip, w/ 512 mb of RAM, and at the time that was pretty cutting edge (right around year 2000) and it ran like crap. Of course some service packs may have stream lined the OS since then, but ultimately in my professional opinion, to make that laptop useable you should run linux.

What kind of web server are we talking about here?
 
A file server? Web server? Are you going to host a webpage on it? The laptop could probably be fine as a simple file server or a simple web server but depending on what you want to use it for will qualify for best results. I mean technically you can run a text based website off your palm with 8mb of ram running linux, but I mean thats about all you can do with it.
 
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