[brother337]

Hey all,

I just got a new Macbook Pro, and I was planning on selling my powerbook G4/1.5 to offset the cost, but it turns out that I may need to hold onto it for video work in a month or two (gonna need to be pulling HD footage off P2 cards, which the Macbook Pro cannot, as of yet, do.)

I'm worried that by the time that I get around to selling this thing, I may not be able to get that much for it, and it may just be more more useful for me to keep it around and put it to use. G4/1.5 is still very useful.

Here's what I figured I could do:
run it in clamshell mode (and install a vnc server on it) and simulatneously
1.) connect a firewire drive to it and use it as a file server.
2.) use it as a print server
3.) wireless router

Can anyone vouch for a mac's performance as a wireless router? Is the broadcast strength powerful enough? Since the Macbook has a Wireless N card, I thought it'd be cool later to put in a Wireless N PCMCIA card and turn it into a Wireless N router.

Any other ideas of what useful things I can do with my old PB? I'm not talking about say, creating my own mail server, more "normal" things that are useful to the layperson.

[hookem2oo7]

I think using it for a simple server (mail, file, etc) would be wasting that machine...This is just my opinion, but like you said, it's still very useful, and I say you see what you could get from selling it before sentencing it to become a print server

[ATPTourFan]

If you use it as a router/file server, that would be cool.

I'd find a very good PCMCIA/Cardbus wireless-N adapter (or at least G) instead of using the built-in antennae and wifi hardware.

I'll trade you my 667MHz Titanium G4 for your 1.5GHz Aluminum, if all you will be using it for later on is file serving/NAT routing.

[ATPTourFan]

Hooken was thinking right along with me on the idea that a 1.5GHz PowerBook is still quite a powerful machine, relatively speaking.

My 667MHz maxed out Titanium is still working quite well for me, so having a system twice as fast is certainly something many users would pay $$$ for.

[ibook_steve]

Easy answer (and what I plan on doing):

MAME arcade cabinet (Build Your Own Arcade Controls - Step up to real gaming excitement!)

Your PB could be a server and run MAME! Fun.

Steve

[brother337]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Easy answer (and what I plan on doing):

MAME arcade cabinet (Build Your Own Arcade Controls - Step up to real gaming excitement!)

Your PB could be a server and run MAME! Fun.

Steve

Haha, mame cabinet! That's a great idea.
Well, I guess my first choice really is to sell it. I'll see what Powerbooks are going for on Craigslist, come January.

[bobthebob01]

Hello guys,

my question is a mix of your replies.

I have an old PowerBoon G4 Titanium 667MHZ 1GB of RAM and 80GB HD.

(By the way nobody can say the oposite, Mac are god machine, i used and abused that PowerBook for almost 4 years. Between me and my wife it was runing day and night! and the only thing i have changed is the HD a year ago because it started to be tired!)

Now that we are going to the pc world..just kidding. we bought new Mac, i was wondering what to do with it. And i thought about turning it into a simple server to share files or back up files, set it up as a firewall, share internet connection, print server...

does any one have idea if that could work with OS X server? would i need to add an ethernet card in the PCI slot to do so, or i can use only the existing port?

thanks for your feed back.

bob

[romeosc]

I keep several old TiPBs and Pismos around. Great in case main PB fails. Use Cloned backup while Safeware repairs. Also When guests stay over for a weekend, it keeps them off my business systems. Also use 1 in Kitchen for wife's receipes (I only reheat with micowave). One unit is used in den as Itunes server.

I am always finding uses.... I take 3 over to nursing home where my 90 year father is and he loves to surf web and show off photoshop skills for the "older residents" The bragging rights keep him young.

It took some convincing to convince Nursing home to let us have password to the wifi connection. I have offered to donate a "lab" for residents to use, but they are worried about liability? A few years back I scanned in over 8000 slides and have been having father identify who is in old pictures, before info is lost forever!


Macs never die, we just find new uses for them!

[brother337]

Originally Posted by bobthebob01 

Hello guys,

my question is a mix of your replies.

I have an old PowerBoon G4 Titanium 667MHZ 1GB of RAM and 80GB HD.

(By the way nobody can say the oposite, Mac are god machine, i used and abused that PowerBook for almost 4 years. Between me and my wife it was runing day and night! and the only thing i have changed is the HD a year ago because it started to be tired!)

Now that we are going to the pc world..just kidding. we bought new Mac, i was wondering what to do with it. And i thought about turning it into a simple server to share files or back up files, set it up as a firewall, share internet connection, print server...

does any one have idea if that could work with OS X server? would i need to add an ethernet card in the PCI slot to do so, or i can use only the existing port?

thanks for your feed back.

bob

all that stuff will work with regular consumer OsX (mostly through the System Preferences). OsX Server will give you more fine tuning control, but will also be a bit more complicated as well.

On the hardware side, for internet sharing you need one network connection for the incoming signal (generally the built in ethernet port) and one network connection for the outgoing signal (either your airport card, or a second ethernet port that you install in the PCMCIA slot.)

[bobthebob01]

romeosc: i find really cool what you did with your father and the mac. And if, at 90 years old he has some photoshop skills you should put him in the guiness book or that could be some really ad for adobe actually.
And i agree with you that we can always find new uses for a Mac.

brother337: thanks for your advice. since i like to play with new things i might give it a go with OSX server and see what it's made of. If it's too much i'll just do it with the regular OSX.
Never know, experience in setting OSX server might come handy one day.

Do you recommend any PCMCIA ethernet card in particular? I did a search and there are tons of them out there.

thanks again guys.

cheers

julien

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by bobthebob01 

romeosc: i find really cool what you did with your father and the mac. And if, at 90 years old he has some photoshop skills you should put him in the guiness book or that could be some really ad for adobe actually.
And i agree with you that we can always find new uses for a Mac.

brother337: thanks for your advice. since i like to play with new things i might give it a go with OSX server and see what it's made of. If it's too much i'll just do it with the regular OSX.
Never know, experience in setting OSX server might come handy one day.

Do you recommend any PCMCIA ethernet card in particular? I did a search and there are tons of them out there.

thanks again guys.

cheers

julien

He doesn't have "great skills". but he knows how to lighten picture, correct color and rename file to include who, what, where and when the picture was taken.