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You could just use it for web browsing. Web browsing doesn't use much in the way of resources and you'll keep your new machine safe and bug free. If it is literally slowing down you might have something infecting it or just crap on it and want to reinstall the Windows O/S and updates first to start out fresh.
If you want to be more adventurous there are all sorts of options. I use a second PC as an internet services box so to speak. On this PC I am running Linux and it is setup to act as secondary firewall, router, caching HTTP proxy, and internal IMAP mail server. This is seperate from my workstation PC which is where the web browswer is running and on which I am doing the actual typing at the moment.
So why would you want to do this? Well for me it works out nicely. The IMAP server part of the above is nice b/c I have multiple computers (some of which are multi-boot with different O/S) from which I want to access email. Having the IMAP server on a central services computer allows me to retreive my mail from my ISP (using fetchmail) and store it there where I can access it from more than one computer at home. The firewall part is nice b/c (a) I can have very carefully crafted inbound and outbound rules and (b) b/c in "front" of this box I have a standard hardware DSL modem/firewall/router so I in effect have a DMZ (normally with nothing in it) that I can place laptops from work into and thus keep segregated from my personal home network Although it isn't a big deal with high speed internet connections the cache does still speed up web browsing a bit and the proxy allows easy blocking of nasty sites and some intersting tricks.
Of course this might all be a little much for you at this point. Another easier option using Linux is to turn it into a fileserver by using Samba. This basically turns it into a Windows share allowing you a place to store and backup files if you have a lot of crap to manage. Stick a bigger disk(s) in if needed and you are set.
posted by 216.165.1...
, Sat, 22 Apr 2006 07:33:47
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