setting up a separate network for vintage systems

One of the many irons I have in my fire is my desire to isolate my old systems on their own network. The people I live with think they are computer literate but in reality they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. They complain when they see my dos system on IRC and they piss and moan about dos viruses on their new windows 7 machines.

So, the quiet the idiots and because I want to do it anyway. I'm looking at making my own router for this project. I have done this before with a dual 900mhz xeon and it worked wonderfully, save for the horrid electric bill. Now if it was just dos/windows machines I wouldn't bother, i'd just grab an old home firewall from a thrift store for $5 and do that, but there is a flaw with this.

1. I have a printer I would LIKE to be able to print to from both sides of the router.
2. I want the old computers to have access to their own, private storage. again, something I can access from both sides. If I download something with my new machine I can toss the files on this share rather than a floppy.
3. I want to add 68k Macs to this network. They don't have to talk to any non-mac, but I would like #1 & #2 for the macs as well. And for the record, the printer is an old hp laserjet 4mp (mp = mac pc, i'm not kidding)
4. I don't want the computers to be able to talk to each other. I'm certain a different subnet will be enough.
5. naturally all machines can access the internet.
6. I would also like to be able to PXE boot. But I want to be able to select which disk image to use. I'd like to be able to boot (an installer) through win7. I'm certain that computer repair places do this right? (I have a PILE of pxe enabled ethernet cards)


also, I would not object to including token-ring. This is more for the dick-waving than anything else, but my first home network was token ring that I got from my old school when they went Ethernet. I realize the macs probably wont like this, but thats why i'm here right? I wish I had kept the 'hub' and all the cables, the ones with the Boy George connectors... I always got a laugh out of that.

anyway, the computer that is going to be the router is a standard socket 7 Pentium. 200i - 512kb - 32mb ram (i can add more) standard 4/4 pci/isa layout. I don't think I need anything more powerful.

Expanding on #6, I would also have an option for a boot diagnostic image. I've probably spent $100 on blank cd's and dvd's. Its annoying and i'd like to stop it, I should already have all the hardware to do it, I just need the software. Please tell me someone else here has had the same idea and I'm not crazy.

I should probably mention the macs in question are all 68k class. the oldest (at the moment) is a Mac Plus.

Why not just get a wrt54g either a version 1 to 4 or a GL. They run around 10 bucks these days. I've just picked up a couple in the last couple of weeks and put Tomato on them so I've got three now. It makes for really fine grained control of my home network.

As for your interest in token-ring, check out some of my mentions on the forums. It seems I can't give this stuff away. I've got piles of ArcNet stuff as well. (sigh) It will just go to the dump when I die. Anyway, enough sour grapes. If you're serious about token-ring send me an e-mail and I'll give you some stuff. ole(at)coalmont(dot)net.

see, thats the thing, I want a shared storage and those little units dont have that. I'm not talking anything major, at MOST a cd iso worth. The printing isnt important, but I HAVE the printer, and i'm tired of buying ink that dries out. The point is, I have all the hardware, i just don't know what software to use nor how to properly set it up. I will most likely take up your offer on the token ring stuff. shipping from canada will be costly, but once I'm ready to pull the trigger, you will be the first to know.

luckybob said:

see, thats the thing, I want a shared storage and those little units dont have that. I'm not talking anything major, at MOST a cd iso worth. The printing isnt important, but I HAVE the printer, and i'm tired of buying ink that dries out. The point is, I have all the hardware, i just don't know what software to use nor how to properly set it up. I will most likely take up your offer on the token ring stuff. shipping from canada will be costly, but once I'm ready to pull the trigger, you will be the first to know.

Click to expand...

You'll certainly learn a thing or two by doing it "from scratch", I just suggested the wrt54g with Tomato because it's cheap and easy - then use the extra computer for storage. With Tomato you'll be able to see live usage charts and daily/weekly/monthly usage and stuff like that. You also get an extra free radio. If you still insist on setting up your own, you might try IPcop. It has some nice features and is a no-brainer to set up. There's a lot of stuff out there, I'm just mentioning what I've used myself.

I just noticed where I'd mentioned the token-ring. This thread. I've got a few miscellaneous (ISA, I think) cards as well.

I do think a little router would do most of the trick. If the router supports a DMZ configuration you can put some systems/IPs where the outside world (in this case your LAN that you're separating yourself from) and internal can both access those systems but not the other systems unless you open access to them.

Some of the details though sound like it might just be a better linux firewall project though and use that as a router/firewall. From there it would be more likely able to host the other protocols or emulate them to talk to some of the less common gear or share an external drive, etc via samba (with possibly AppleTalk).