[babble]

I'm working for a small design firm (8 employes). And we'd like to have a cheap server setup. Is it possible to use one of our old G4 as a server without using Mac OS X Server software?

Here's what I'm tinking of doing, and please tell me if I'm wrong (in a OS X panther environment).

-Take one of our old G4 and use it as our network hard drive to store all our Fonts and work in progress. And use it at the end of the day to make back ups on DVD-Rs.

_Connect all our G4's to it using Ethernets and Hubs and simply use the "Connect to server" in Mac OS X. To retreive the fonts and work we need on a daily basis.

Thank's.

[arclight]

You can do it many ways including the method you suggested. It all depends on how much you need your "server" to do. The method you suggest is great for a simple network but how does everyone access the web in your firm?

The reason I ask is that in a normal network, the server handles all access to the outside world (web) as well as everything that goes on within the network. If you set it up the way you explained, the old G4 is just another client within the network. Being another client is fine if all you need to do is access fonts and files. You can setup all the macs in the firm to automatically mount the shared volume at startup.

Do you have any network equipment that you're going to recycle? Give us some more info. Also are you using Adobe Version Cue for collaborating on projects? AKA WebDAV-

[babble]

Our web access, is done with a LinkSys router which connects all our Macs. (and an additional LinkSys hub)
And yes, we'll only need to have a center to access fonts and files.
We don't use Adobe Cue.

So my direction is good then...

Thank's for your reply.

[si_lance]

What you suggest is almost exactly what small companies using Linux/FreeBSD do. When you need to simply share an internet connection and make a small LAN it's great! I disagree with arclight because what he speaks of is called a proxy server and is not usually running on something like a Primary Domain Controller (windows term) although companies on tighter budgets may use something like FreeBSD, dhcpd, and NAT instead of the nice Linksys.

Your workgroup doesn't need any IT-nazi so your method is great. A couple of suggestions though.
1. Make sure the server is NOT set to DHCP (give it a static address), and make it outside of the DHCP range Linksys provides. This prevents it from "moving around".
2. Since you don't have an internal DNS or something like WINS I suggest adding to each of the member machines hosts file. In OS X it's located in /etc. Add an entry like:
192.168.x.x name_of_your_server
This way finding your server by friendly name is simple and fast.