An old g4 powermac i find works great as a home server. There are some great open source programs out there that are easy to set up that make it a powerful and versatile system. So I thought I'd share in case others are looking to re-purpose their old G4 while keeping their bank account in check.
System:
Powermac G4 sawtooth 600mhz (modified 500mhz chip)
1GB SDRAM
two internal drives. System is 40gb storage is 120GB.
OS X 10.4.11
i use mine for file/print, dns, sftp, and a secure remote mac workstation when I'm on the road. Here's how i have it set up:
backups: i threw in a usb 2.0 card ($25), tied it to an external lacie drive and use silverkeeper to back it up.
http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
you can use any drive but since lacie provides it free and needed a drive i bought one. Good marketing!
For dns i use dnsenabler:
http://cutedgesystems.com/software/DNSEnabler/
Wait, why would I want a DNS server at home? Lots of reasons. Easier name resolution if you have multiple platforms running at home for one. Also if your ISP's DNS is less than reliable then this will keep you going when their DNS servers go south. Keep it secure though, don't accept zone transfers and you can point to your ISPs DNS and any number of OpenDNS servers as forwarders.
BTW it's free for Tiger but for leopard there's a nominal charge.
Dhcp takes a bit of terminal work but its not too scary,
http://red0hat.com/DHCP.htm
Or use can just turn on the dhcp server on your router/firewall.
For remote desktop access i use the built-in client server in Tiger. Here's a great article from on mactech complete with commands:
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mact...SSH/index.html
It sounds geeky but if you're not a geek like me it's pretty straightforward. Just keep the terminal command handy and you're all set to connect securely.
for SFTP I've been playing around with MySecureShell. However Tiger has a built-in stfp server when you enable remote file sharing.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysecureshell/
And finally, getting around sharing more than just your home folder on Tiger on the network. To solve this check out SharePoints:
http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/
Enjoy!
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