Old Computer = New ?

[Diego]

My parents gave me the old computer they had lying around the house. I want to bring up to school with me and turn into my linux playground to expand my knowledge. However, I also want to be able to tunnel my traffic through it (SSH), and be able to remotely control it (VNC?) I will be connecting it to a linksys wrt54g running dd-wrt through a constant connection.

Ideal situation, I will be able to securely use the internet at starbucks by tunneling through this computer. I will be able to remotely connect to it to retrieve homework, music files, etc. It wont use power until I need it to (is this called WakeOnLan?)

Any help you guys can give me to help me with the questions/ideas above would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[gEEEk]

So what is really your question?

SSH is already integrated in the most Linux distros.

So if you're new to Linux, use something like Ubuntu.

And if you want to be able to access your files securely

from Starbucks, just use a sFTP server.

[H@L0_F00]

My parents gave me the old computer they had lying around the house. I want to bring up to school with me and turn into my linux playground to expand my knowledge. However, I also want to be able to tunnel my traffic through it (SSH), and be able to remotely control it (VNC?) I will be connecting it to a linksys wrt54g running dd-wrt through a constant connection.

Ideal situation, I will be able to securely use the internet at starbucks by tunneling through this computer. I will be able to remotely connect to it to retrieve homework, music files, etc. It wont use power until I need it to (is this called WakeOnLan?)

Any help you guys can give me to help me with the questions/ideas above would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

bring it to school (college?) as in keep it in your dorm?

I would recommend Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop since your learning but you should try to setup, config, and maintain most things via CLI. You will learn alot more and you'll be able to maintain the computer remotely through SSH.

and SSH (Secure SHell) makes it so you can execute *any* CLI command with the right privileges so you probably wont need VNC. I personally use OpenSSH and found it "retardedly easy" ;) to setup and config, being quite new to linux myself. And use sFTP for files as gEEEk stated.

Make sure WoL is supported by your NIC and look into password protecting it if possible as some manufactures offer this feature but not many.

[snakey]

yuck at using ubuntu. Debian/fedora are a much better choice

[wire]

This is an excellent use for an old computer: make it a new ... server. That's the word you're looking for, I think. In order for this server to be seen from beyond the linksys router, you'll need to have the right ports forwarded to the computer (or you could just put it in the dmz).

[Diego]

This is an excellent use for an old computer: make it a new ... server. That's the word you're looking for, I think. In order for this server to be seen from beyond the linksys router, you'll need to have the right ports forwarded to the computer (or you could just put it in the dmz).

dmz?

[lvlolvlo]

dmz?

dmz = demilitarized zone, i.e. your computer is seen on the internet... whatever ports you have open are open, no natting

[antirem]

If your going to be using dd-wrt (openwrt would be better) you wont need the computer. You could just set up SSH on your router and make it a loopback so you can tunnel through it.

[H@L0_F00]

If your going to be using dd-wrt (openwrt would be better) you wont need the computer. You could just set up SSH on your router and make it a loopback so you can tunnel through it.

yes or Tomato but he wants FTP as well