On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 09:32:40AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > Underlying question: What should I be reading? > > I wish a blackbox which: > > 1. Connects 4 local machines via Ethernet [WiFi shall *NOT* be considered] > A. A desktop with WinXP and multiple versions of Debian > B. A laptop with WinXP Pro SP3 whose reason for existence is running > SeaMonkey. > Historically it is/was my primary machine. Its future is as a > portable. > C. A laptop dedicated to Linux experiments. I have erased the HDD as > many as > ten times in one week ;/ > D. Misc temporarily connected laptops.
A reliable 8 port gigabit switch costs about $20-25. That plus some cables connects everything up. > 2. It shall provide multiple USB ports in order that a selection of flash > dives > and a 1 TB HDD can be accessed by any machine. > 3. It *SHALL* connect to the internet via a T-Mobile 4G Hotspot Z915 > connected > via USB. The WiFi features have been disabled. I really wanted a USB > cell network > modem. The local T-Mobile outlet was only vendor that didn't try > assaulting me with > their 'smartphone-du-jour' with an atrociously large data plan. this > connection > shall be protected by a firewall. > > How broke will I be? Sounds like a very small 1TB disk Debian box running iptables. If you want to buy a refurbished computer, $100-200 will cover it easily. If you want to build a new one from parts, NewEgg will sell you a bundle of everything for about $240 - case, power supply, motherboard, processor, RAM, disk. Alternatively you could buy a small laptop with a 1TB disk. That gives you most of the above plus a built-in UPS and console. -dsr-
