Server Appliance
 

My team has connectivity issues. We have 3+ laptops every meeting and only 2 ethernet cables and no wifi.

So I took the team's PC. I installed Apache, PHP, MySQL, Filezilla server, Subversion, MediaWiki, and a patebin. I bought a router, a molex connector, and a power jack. I still have to mod the case, mount the router, and solder the power dongle.

This is what I'm calling a server appliance. It's a self-contained router, 802.11g access point, and misc. services. There's very little to keep track of and lug around (just the box and 1 power cable). You don't need to reconfigure it every time you move it.

You plug it in, hit the "on" button, and wait for the solid green light (it's finished booting). That's it. When you're done, you hit the "off" button, wait for it to die, and unplug it. No configuration or setup. It just works.

Any comments? Anything that I should add?

Re: Server Appliance
 

What's the operating system on it?

If its a *nix flavor, make sure to install SSH, since its really useful to have when you don't have access to a monitor. If its a version of Windows (2k/XP), I'd recommend putting TightVNC on it instead, for the same reason.

Re: Server Appliance
 

Windows 2000.

The nice thing about this particular PC is that it was donated by a TV station. I'm thinking it that it was originally a headless encoder box. (The computer name of 'wxmi-encoder' is a bit of a give-away. ;) ) It came with WinVNC.