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Powermac g4 finds new life as server

Lil Chillbil

Lil Chillbil

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 30, 2012
1,325
104
California
My "Windtunnel" G4 is now automatically turning on at 0500 and shutting down at 2200 everyday acting as a itunes homesharing server for all the music I have on CD. Very minimal lag and is capable of streaming to multiple computers over the network just fine. I am listening to Boston's "Carry on my wayward son" as I type this.

anyone else running a PowerPc server?
 
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Lil Chillbil said:
My "Windtunnel" G4 is now automatically turning on at 0500 and shutting down at 2200 everyday acting as a itunes homesharing server for all the music I have on CD. Very minimal lag and is capable of streaming to multiple computers over the network just fine. I am listening to Boston's "Carry on my wayward son" as I type this.

anyone else running a PowerPc server?
Click to expand...
I was inspired by ripped off your project and created my own. :D

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/itunes-4-0-rises-again….2028499/

You have the benefit of a later version of iTunes though.

Probably going to this thing I did to the QS if I can get it running again though.

Nice job on your project!
 
Lil Chillbil said:
My "Windtunnel" G4 is now automatically turning on at 0500 and shutting down at 2200 everyday acting as a itunes homesharing server for all the music I have on CD. Very minimal lag and is capable of streaming to multiple computers over the network just fine. I am listening to Boston's "Carry on my wayward son" as I type this.
anyone else running a PowerPc server?
Click to expand...
I'm running a miniG4 as fax-server only for outgoing fax.
Oh well, could be also used for music-streaming ... :)
It has no monitor attached and I'm using screen-sharing/file-sharing from my intel iMac sitting next by.
It goes to sleeping mode automatically after 5min of inactivity and I use "WakeOnLAN" http://www.readpixel.com/wakeonlan/ to wake it up on demand. That will reduce running-time and power-consumption to a minimum.
TeamViewer7 also enables remote-access.
mini-g4.JPG
 
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Yeah despite a lot of things have become really hard to do with ppc macs they are great as home servers as they have a good reliability in long using periods. I read somewhere that for their good resistance ppc processors are chosen to be used in space missions.

I do often use mine as server to share my movies on the tv
 
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pochopsp said:
I read somewhere that for their good resistance ppc processors are chosen to be used in space missions.
Click to expand...
NASA goes with proven products that have shown they are stable and have long life. When spacecraft are X-millions of miles away there's no on-site tech support services.

The chip powering the Mars rover is a PowerPC G3 chip. Less than 500mhz I believe.
 
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eyoungren said:
NASA goes with proven products that have shown they are stable and have long life. When spacecraft are X-millions of miles away there's no on-site tech support services.

The chip powering the Mars rover is a PowerPC G3 chip. Less than 500mhz I believe.
Click to expand...
The Mars Rover has a RAD750 processor, basically a rugged version of the PowerPC G3 750 processor, which runs between 110MHz and 200MHz. It is fully compatible with the regular 750s, just more rugged for radiation and extreme temperatures. So yep, the Mars Rover that is scooting over Mars out there in space shares the "brains" of our trusty iMac G3, in a way :)
 
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I'm importing more CD's into the MDD atm so I decided to hop onto the forum. Even this forum has gotten heavier since I first started posting from my powermac g4 sawtooth in the early years of this decade.
 
Lil Chillbil said:
I'm importing more CD's into the MDD atm so I decided to hop onto the forum. Even this forum has gotten heavier since I first started posting from my powermac g4 sawtooth in the early years of this decade.
Click to expand...
They changed the forum software to XenForo about a year or so ago.

If it's moving slow you probably have the rich text editor on. If you can see a bar that has editing tools for your posts in the quick reply box then you have it on. When it's on, doesn't matter what you do, it's running javascript in the background. Turn it off in your settings and the forum will pick up.

The only downside is learning to hand code the tags for bold, italics, emoticons, etc.
 
bobesch said:
I'm running a miniG4 as fax-server only for outgoing fax.
Oh well, could be also used for music-streaming ... :)
It has no monitor attached and I'm using screen-sharing/file-sharing from my intel iMac sitting next by.
It goes to sleeping mode automatically after 5min of inactivity and I use "WakeOnLAN" http://www.readpixel.com/wakeonlan/ to wake it up on demand. That will reduce running-time and power-consumption to a minimum.
TeamViewer7 also enables remote-access.
View attachment 684553
Click to expand...

Interesting- what software are you running for the fax server?

Not exactly power efficient but I use a headless dual-core powermac g5 as a vpn/torrent/file server running in my basement. With ECC RAM it runs for 6+ months at a time without getting a reboot. I'll probably replace it with my C2D mac mini in the next year only because of the power consumption
 
macprobuffalo said:
Interesting- what software are you running for the fax server?
Not exactly power efficient but I use a headless dual-core powermac g5 as a vpn/torrent/file server running in my basement. With ECC RAM it runs for 6+ months at a time without getting a reboot. I'll probably replace it with my C2D mac mini in the next year only because of the power consumption
Click to expand...

It's "PageSender Fax-Center" - the only smart solution for sending fax to a group of recipients, that I've found after a long search. PageSender has been discontinued, runs only on Tiger/Leopard/SnowLeopard, but one may get a license from Smile on special request (https://smilesoftware.com/pagesender).
Download is possible at http://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Mac-OS/PageSender-Fax-Center.html
I think about installing a big 1 or 2GB drive for using the miniG4 as an additional backups backup-solution for my Win2008Server. - Even if 10/100-Ethernet is slow, time doesn't matter, when CCC-backups are scheduled to run overnight and only new/changed files are copied after the first full backup.
Your C2D mini will be a "beast" compared to the mini-G4 (it's the media-hub at our family) - but when I listen to the space-proof qualities of PPS, I'm keen to pimp up my miniG4 up for enhanced tasks.
 
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