Macintosh Server G3 Ideas

[tracetritt]

Hey everybody, my boss just gave me an old server. The Macintosh G3 PPC. It has a 4GB HD. 768MB RAM. I think it's the 266Mhz PPC. Etc. Anyways, the HD is bad so I'm going to be getting a new one tomorrow. Any thoughts on what I could do with this thing. I was thinking an iTunes server but then I realized that, that would be of no use to me as I don't listen to much music. Well, give me some ideas. Thank you.

Tyler

 

[ReanimationLP]

Hey everybody, my boss just gave me an old server. The Macintosh G3 PPC. It has a 4GB HD. 768MB RAM. I think it's the 266Mhz PPC. Etc. Anyways, the HD is bad so I'm going to be getting a new one tomorrow. Any thoughts on what I could do with this thing. I was thinking an iTunes server but then I realized that, that would be of no use to me as I don't listen to much music. Well, give me some ideas. Thank you.

Tyler

Macintosh Server G3 266 is the same thing as the Beige Power Macintosh G3 266MHz Desktop/Tower.

Its called Server because it originally shipped with Mac OS Server.

I have no idea what you can do, I have one.

I use it to bring my Laserjet 5 off the floor. >.>

 

[Cuyahoga]

I had a B&W G3 that I set up as a linux server for kicks. Unfortunately, it drew such an insane amount of power that after only about 2 years it would be cheaper to buy a new mini and use that. Not to mention all the headaches of installing Linux on an 8-year-old PPC computer.

That may not apply too much to you, but just keep the cost of power consumption somewhere in the back of your mind. That said, messing around with your own server is an excellent (if not always practical way) to learn things.

 

[tracetritt]

I just came up with a good one. I could make it an FTP server. That way, I can use it as a file server at home as well as access everything from my school and friends houses. Though, somewhat insecure, it would not be hosting anything too vital. I'll have to think about this one. Also, does anyone know if I were to get a usb/firewire card to go in the pci slot if it'll work with OS 9. Or, would I have to upgrade to OS 10.1/2.

Tyler

 

[Cuyahoga]

If you don't mind sacrificing the accessibility of FTP, you could use SFTP instead. All you have to do is enable "Remote Logon" or whatever service relates to SSH on your server, then:

On a Mac:
Use terminal & ssh command to remotely control server
Use terminal & sftp to easily transfer files
Use a free app like Fugu (check macupdate.com) to transfer files with a GUI

On a PC:
Use Putty to simulate a terminal and use ssh or sftp
Use a free app like WinSCP to transfer files with a GUI

I like having a GUI, so I use the latter one in each case. The downside is (as far as I know) if you were at a random computer and wanted to access your files (and it wasn't running OSX/Linux) you would have to install an application--which could outweigh the security benefits. Take this with a grain of salt though, this is just from my (very) limited experience. Have fun!