I've actually bought HW like this from ISellSurplus and eBay. Over the years, I've gotten two Compaq Proliant servers from eBay and both have been great. The one I'm running now was a new old stock Proliant 1600 and cost more than probably what you want to spend but still a fraction of the new cost. There are many recyclers on eBay who buy decommissioned corporate hardware and resell it. My first server (a Proliant 800) came from the accounting firm Ernst & Young (it had the asset tag still on it). Both of these were rack mounted servers. On ISellSurplus I got two Pentium II machines that I used for experimenting with Snort. I think they were $25 each but I had to buy the RAM and HD separately. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Brutman Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 1:47 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Slightly OT: Sources for slightly older PeeCee server class hardware I've been using a Linux box as a firewall for the cable modem before Linksys and the other networking companies came out with small router boxes. Along the years the uses for the box have grown, so I do a little hacking on it, some file servering, backup/restore to the Windoze boxes, etc. The original box was an old 486-66 running Redhat 6.1. (It ran OS/2 2.1 originally). I only decommissioned it last year, and it is still sitting in the room waiting for it's next purpose in life. The current box is a Pentium 233, and it's been doing just fine except I fear that it's starting to crap out. It will not boot off of a floppy disk no matter what I try. I've tried 2 cables, 3 drives, and four different known good boot disks. I've stripped the system down, screwed with the onboard setup, etc. To make a long story short, after 3 hours I've finally decided that the onboard FDC controller is heading south. Disks are still readable, but only after you've booted from hard disk. The motherboard was an ABIT IT5H - good at the time, but given ABIT's reputation at the time I'm really happy that it made it this far. Since the end is near for this machine, it's time to get my data off of it and find a replacement. I'm thinking of something: - a little more robust .. ie, quality - needs to take a few PCI cards. Right now I use 2 NICs, 1 SCSI, and 1 video card. If some of those functions are on the motherboard that is fine. - Can be left on continuously and ignored. What's a good source for stuff like this? I'm thinking of monitoring eBay for items I can do local pickup on, but I'm not sure if small businesses that have this kind of hardware take the time to put it out on eBay when it comes time to upgrade. (I'm in Rochester MN, so my sources of this stuff are limited.) Any ideas on the floppy controller?

On 2/12/2006 at 12:47 PM Michael B. Brutman wrote: I've got a similar setup here (even have an FM transmitter hooked to the audio output, so I can broadcast net radio throughout the house. After having a couple of cheaper no-name systems crap out on me, I bought an off-lease Compaq Deskpro P3 600. This is one of the old-style ones with the separate slide-out daugherboard for expansion cards. Basically built like a tank. Thus far, it's been running for about 4 years continuously with not a glitch. It's hooked to a big old Elgar UPS powered by 3 garden tractor batteries, which I replace every few years. We've had a few power failures, some lasting up to 8 hours over the last few years and not a bit dropped. After that much time, I power up the generator--got to keep the stuff in my fridge cold and the water tank full. But I've never had a bad experience picking my gear up from off-lease wholesalers. Quite often, the stuff is less than a year old and sells at a fraction of the original price. The system I'm working on now (an HP Vectra P3 1Ghz) was purchased 5 years ago for $120. Never had a bit of trouble with it. Right now, a local ISP is offering wireless 768Kbps down for $20/month. I'm on DSL 256K at more than that, which is all that's been available to me, since I don't live in town. The trick is to figure out whether I can get sufficient signal strength here--I can SEE the transmitting tower about 3 miles off on the horizon, so maybe there's hope. Cheers, Chuck