[MLB-WIRELESS] What distro to use?

[Grant McHerron]

Heya Mark,


At 10:29 PM 24/07/2004, Mark Farrell wrote:
 >I am trying to set up my node, however, i only have a very low end (P2 233
 >mHz) to turn into an AP.

Damn - that's considered "very low end" ??? What the heck do we call the 
Pentium 133's I've been squeezing Linux onto? (yeah, OK, I know - Obsolete :)

 >on install. I have also tried other distros like red hat and debian but the
 >pc is too slow and it becomes very frustrating trying to get them to work.

You should find that Debian would work quite well on a P2 233 (RAM is the 
kicker - how much has it got?) - one big question first up - are you 
running with X-Windows (graphical) or are you running command line? If the 
former - there's ya problem :)

I've set up an old P3 (like, 500MHz or way less)  with 256Mb of RAM as the 
firewall for a 30-50 person office (depends on how many are in town at the 
time :) It's running Mandrake in "paranoid" mode, has no X-Windows and it 
works a treat - the load averages hardly climb above 0.2. I've also set up 
an old Compaq P2 box (somewhere around 300MHz) with 128Mb RAM and Mandrake 
- it's the gateway firewall for a 6-10 person office - again, it's running 
very smoothly although load averages are a tad higher :)

 >To cut a long story short, im a bit of a noob and i need some help choosing
 >a distro and configuring my old PC to turn it into an AP. Any help at all
 >will be appreciated.

[NOTE: This information is being given as "Grant's Best Assistance on a 
Sunday Morning" - I'm not wanting to get a freakin "My Distro's Better Than 
Yours" flame war going - last thing we need is another flame war :) ]

 From what I've seen, the installer on Mandrake runs pretty easily and 
helps abstract you a lot from the harsh realities underneath it all :)

  If you've got time to muck around and learn though (and really want to 
learn how *nix based systems tick), Slackware is great! (Version 10 just 
released - gotta get me that and check it out - haven't Slacked-Off for 
ages :) No nancy-boy protection - you have to get in and learn what it's 
all about - wonderful way to really get yer hands dirty and learn all about 
that infernal compunction engine :)

Anyhow - hope this helps.

Cheers,

Grant



-------------------------------
Grant McHerron
(grant at mcherron.com)
www.mcherron.com for latest news and views
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