My Network

Computer	1993-1995	1996-1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
AppleBox
BreadBox
Hyphae
Mesophyll
OfficeBox
OldBox
PowerBox
RouteBox I
RouteBox II
RouteBox III
SubBox
ThinkBox
Thylakoid
WindowsBox
Xylem
DeskJet
Epson
Laserloo
LattisNet

AppleBox

Apple Macintosh SE
Motorola 68000
4MB of RAM
640MB External Gargoyles Hard drive
Dayna Pocket SCSI/Link Ethernet Device
1.44MB Floppy
800kB Floppy

AppleBox is one of my toys. I always loved Macs and this is the first Mac I could buy in 1999. It may not be fast or pretty, but it runs smoothly and is a testament to Apple Engineering to have survived from 1988 intact. I have upgraded several parts. It came with 4MB of RAM and the 800kB floppy. I have added a 1.44MB floppy, the hard drive and the Ethernet. (The Gargoyles drive sounds like a gargoyle when I'm reading data.)

BreadBox

Intel Pentium 75 Running at 100MHz
16MB of RAM
Quantum Maverik 540MB Hard drive
1.44MB Floppy
ProAudio 16 Sound Card with SCSI Controller and 1× SCSI CD-ROM
DLink PnP NE2000 Network Card
ISA Video Card
Parallel & Serial Card

Once I removed OfficeBox from its former case and stripped OldBox of any useful components I almost had a complete system less a Socket 7 motherboard. I could get on very cheap at a surplus store, so I build BreadBox. I loaded it up with 4 Serial ports and 2 Parallel ports in the hopes that I could interface it with other devices in my house (See Coffee How-To.) The battery died and I did not have a spare handy and have been too lazy to buy one, so I used a 9V battery clip, a battery holder designed to hold 2 AA's with a clip and some tin foil as, what was originally makeshift, but now permanent CMOS battery.

Hyphae

AMD Athlon 2GHz
256MB of RAM
60GB Hard drive
1.44MB Floppy
Sound Blaster Live! Sound Card
On-Board nVidia nForce2 Network Card
ATI Radeon 7000/VE Video Card with Benq 17" LCD Monitor
Creative 8× CD-ROM
LG DVD-RAM

Frustrations with the hardware in WindowsBox caused me to get a pair of systems to replace it and RouteBox. This system runs Windows XP for general use.

Mesophyll

Toshiba Satellite Pro A200-AH9
Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB of RAM
100GB Hard drive

As Thylakoid began to accumulate cripling hardware problems, like a lack of CD-ROM, I decided to replace it. This system was cloned from Thylakoid in the way that Xylem was cloned from Thylakoid.

OfficeBox

Intel Pentium 120
32MB of RAM
2.5GB Hard drive
1.44MB Floppy
Sound Blaster 16 Sound Card with IDE Controller
3COM 509B Network Card
ATI Mach64 4M Video Card with Daytek 15" Monitor
Creative 4× CD-ROM

OfficeBox is for running all basic applications. It has Windows 98, Internet Explorer 5 and Microsoft Office 97. It lacks the frills of some of the other systems, but is deigned for doing work. It does AppleTalk sharing using PC MacLan because AppleTalk is the more standard protocol on my network. It also has the DeskJet attached. I have removed it from its tower case and placed in the desktop case of OldBox. For what reason? So that I could slide it under my desk and out of my chair space. I had to replace the cooling fan in 2001 and in the process I gouged the motherboard with the retention clip and that was the end of OfficeBox.

OldBox

Intel 386SX
2MB of RAM

OldBox was the fist computer we ever owned. When we got OfficeBox (although it wasn't called that since there was no network), we gave it to a family member. They have since gotten a better computer, and OldBox was returned to us. I needed the 40MB drive at the time for RouteBox so I have to get a new harddisk.

I have tried to get it working over the past while, but failed. The CMOS is fried. Even after replacing the battery, upon reboot, the system forgets its RAM and disk configuration. I have no other choice but to retire it. The only damaged component is the motherboard, but the RAM can't be used in any other system, so I am removing them an cannibalizing the remaining components. Adieu OldBox.

PowerBox

Apple Macintosh PowerBook 1400cs
Motorola PowerPC 603e
48MB of RAM
770MB Hard drive
Global Village PowerPort Platinum Pro Ethernet/Modem PC Card
Bay with 1.44MB Floppy or 8× CD-ROM
Infared Port

Since I got Thylakoid, I no longer use PowerBox, but PowerBox is a wonderful Macintosh notebook I recieved from my uncle on my 16^th birthday. I have it setup to be able to match appropriate configurations whre ever I may want to plug it in (i.e. school, a friends house). It also has Microsoft Office 98 and therefore can transparently use Office documents on my Windows machines.

RouteBox

Intel 486
16MB of RAM
322MB Wester Digital Hard drive
40MB Conner Hard drive
1.44MB Floppy
3COM EtherLink III (509B) Network Card
Allied Telesyn 1700 UTP/FDDI Network Card
D-Link DE220PT Network Card
USR 14.4 Modem

RouteBox servers as the main server for the network. It uses the Slackware Linux operating system and uses IP Chaining to route the Internet connection to the internal network. It also acts as the WWW, FTP and mail server and is, therefore, the server which you are currently accessing. This installation of Caldera was designed to be small and efficient lacking in disk eating frills. The larger hard disk functions as the drive where Linux is installed and the smaller one as a swap disk.

The Apache HTTPd server as a custom made set of cgi programs which generate the web page on the fly from pre-made templates. This keeps the content, template and navigation nicely synchronized. There are text files with HTML markup, but no header or layout, that follow a specific naming scheme to be organized. A BASH script reads the list of files and creates a traditional navigation bar and a JavaScript navigation bar which it caches away. When a page is requested, the cgi script inserts the navigation bar and page content into an HTML template that does have the header, body and layout information. This finished page that is received by the destination client is actually a merged document from 3 sources to require as little work on the part of the site maintainer (me).

RouteBox was retired August 2001. Its 332MB HD was removed for use as a removable drive. Its NICs and modem where transferred to the New RouteBox. It was given two new network cards and given to a friend as a router.

RouteBox

Intel Pentium 133
32MB of RAM
2.5GB Quantum Hard drive
SoundBlaster 4× CD-ROM
1.44MB Floppy
3COM EtherLink III (509B) Network Card
Allied Telesyn 1700 UTP/FDDI Network Card
D-Link DE220PT Network Card
USR 14.4 Modem

RouteBox servers as the main server for the network. It uses the Slackware Linux operating system and uses IP Chaining to route the Internet connection to the internal network. It also acts as the WWW, FTP and mail server and is, therefore, the server which you are currently accessing. This installation of Slackware was designed to be small and efficient lacking in disk eating frills. The Apache HTTPd server uses PHP to reduce the maintence this site needs.

In October of 2001, it was replaced.

RouteBox

Intel Pentium 200
64MB of RAM
4.2GB Seagate Hard Drive
SoundBlaster 4× CD-ROM
Sony CD-RW
1.44MB Floppy
3COM EtherLink III (950) PCI Network Card
3COM EtherLink III (509B) ISA Network Card
USR 14.4 Modem

RouteBox servers as the main server for the network. It uses the GNU/Linux operating system compiled from source and uses IP Chaining to route the Internet connection to the internal network. It also acts as the WWW, FTP and mail server and is, therefore, the server which you are currently accessing. This installation was designed to be small and efficient lacking in disk eating frills. The Apache HTTPd server uses PHP to reduce the maintennce this site needs.

The CD-RW stopped working in WindowsBox so I jammed it in here where it works just fine.

SubBox

IBM PS/2
Intel 386SX
6MB of RAM
60MB ESDI Hard drive
SMC MicroChannel Ethernet
1.44MB Floppy

SubBox is one of the few IBM microchannel machines in existence. Microchannel was put in very few IBM machines from the 286 era to the 486 era. It was an IBM's proprietary version of ISA. The ethernet card plugs into the bus as does the floppy and harddisk. It is configured using this strange CMOS Setup on a floppy disk from IBM using these ADF files for each device. Despite how crazy this may sound, it is well designed and every component is designed to attached using snaps or finger screws. The system can be taken completely apart in only a few minutes with out any tools. But, it's still scary.

Currently it has no real OS. I am trying to install OS/2 or Linux, but have had no success. Hey, it boots, that impresses me.

Then, I came to my senses and left under a pile of junk in my basement where it now sits.

ThinkBox

IBM ThinkPad 365XD
Intel Pentium 120
40MB of RAM
770MB Hard drive
ESS Internal Sound
DE-660+ PCMCIA Network Card
Daytek 15" Monitor
Teac CD-ROM

ThinkBox is for running all basic applications. It has Windows 98, Internet Explorer 5 and Microsoft Office 97. It lacks the frills of some of the other systems, but is deigned for doing work. It was a replacement for OfficeBox.

Of late, the hardware has been failing and it has not been of much use.

Thylakoid

Sony Vaio FXA-47 Notebook
AMD Athlon-4 1.0GHz
256MB of RAM
20GB harddrive
Sony DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
3COM 802.11g Wirelss PCMCIA Card
Built in 10/100 Ethernet

This is the machine that I take to school and do almost everthing on. It runs Linux from Scratch and I have compeletely purged it of Windows and all Microsoft products. Currently, there are is no software that is not free (as in beer) running on it and all software execpt the Macromedia Flash plugin has been compiled from sources.

WindowsBox

Intel Pentium III 500
128MB of RAM
3.6GB Western Digital Hard drive
2.5GB Quantum Hard drive
SB Live! PCI Sound Card
Network Card
NEC AccuSync 70 17" Monitor
Sony 8× CD-ROM
Artec Ultima USB Scanner
Logitech USB Optical Mouse
USR 33.6K Modem

WindowsBox is the machine for doing all the day to day work. It, having the most power, gets used most by my family.

Xylem

AMD Athlon 2GHz
256MB of RAM
80GB Hard drive
On-Board nVidia nForce2 Network Card
3Com Corporation 802.11abg Network Card
D-Link RTL8139 Network Card
QLogic QLA2100 Host Bus Adapter
ATI Radeon 7000/VE Video Card with Daytek 15" Monitor
40× CD-ROM
Sony CD-RW

Frustrations with the hardware in WindowsBox caused me to get a pair of systems to replace it and RouteBox. This system runs the same Linux installation as Thylakoid. I effectively share the software and maintenance effort between the two systems. /usr/local holds software that is truly local to each system and kept out of rsync's distribution mechanism. This machine picks up the tasks of running Apache, mail, and DNS, as well as Samba as a domain controller against LDAP. It also connects to the disk array. It also bridges with wireless network to the Ethernet.

Hewlett Packard DeskJet 660C

This was very nice colour printer but it died out and was replaced by the Epson.

Epson Stylus Photo R200

This is very nice colour printer and it replaced the DeskJet.

Texas Instruments microLaser Pro 600

The answer to most common question regarding this laser printer is ``Yes, Texas Instruments made laser printers.'' It was sitting in a friend's closet doing very little since it printed black smears. He gave it to me and by cleaning the corona wire with alcohol, it prints beautifully which is ironic since exposing the corona wire to light, let alone harsh solvent, should be damaging. Since I take this printer to the Univeristy of Waterloo, the name Laserloo seemed appropriate.

SynOptics LattisNet 2310 Hub

3 Banks of 12 Ethernet Ports
Port 1 of Each Bank Switching Between Standard and UpLink
AUI Port
RS-232 Port
Service Port
10 Mb Speed

I no longer use this hub since it is only 10 MBit/s and most of my devies are 100 Mb/s. There are four banks. The fist has AUI, RS-232 and Service ports. The Service port is a RS-232 link to the control system. Banks 2, 3 and 4 have 12 RJ-45 ports each. SynOptics has gone out of business leaving only sketchy documentation behind. It has Link, Data, Collision and Status lights for each bank, but there is also a Micro-Processor Fault light that show the state onboard processor which allows network management. I bought it for $35.00 (CDN) at an electronic ``recycling'' (i.e. mostly junk) store. A very good deal!