zigbee???

I've only purchased printers with built-in Ethernet ports for a number for some years now. :-) (There only are two currently in use -- HP OfficeJet K850 and a Canon MX850 multi-function printer/scanner/FAX.)

Although I probably should measure the standby current of the K850 -- if it's more than a handful of watts it'd be worth turning off when it's not in use. (The MX850 does stay off by "default" as it gets used just once every week or so, most of the time.)

I have one of those integrated DSL modem/routers/wireless access point boxes (...that also has a USB port on the back for network accessible storage -- my wife has a 2.5" drive connected that she uses for backups), although sometimes I worry that perhaps this is going too far towards too much functionality in one box.

---Joel

This actually makes a lot of sense. From my experience as a system administrator I must say that seperating functions helps stability a lot. Especially back in the NT4 days. Having 20 people do nothing can cost more than $3k per day.

That depends on the printers that you have and how you use them. E.g., most of my printers have network interface cards built in. So, I don't need anything special to talk to any of those.

OTOH, the printer that I use most often (an LJ6P) does NOT! So, I connect it to my bastion host (which serves as my local DNS, NTP, TFTP, BOOTP, xfs, HTTP, FTP, etc. server). I.e., the "print server" functionality is "free" -- since all those other services need to be running, anyway...

I don't tether any printers directly to a specific machine (well, that's a little lie... the color inkjets are hardwired to my multimedia workstation -- but nothing else *needs* to talk to those) as doing so would force that machine to be up and running *just* to use the printer. :-/ (I have probably 6 or 7 printers that see different kinds of use from different machines, etc.)

Well, my 5L is connected to the LAN router which has a parallel port. Works like a champ. Unless it has a hang-up but that it does no matter what it's connected to (HP forgot a reset button). The big office printer is directly on the LAN and that's how it should nowadays be.

Other than the work computers here there's nothing that must run all day/night. In the evening everything is powered off unless I need to run a major SPICE simulation.

This is what is called systematic approach; and this is the only way of existence for big organizations.

VLV

Looks nice! In a similar vein, my mother has one of these at her home in New Zealand:

- I specifically purchased it as something that fits within a U.S.P.S. flat-rate box so that shipping prices for the inevitable fixes and upgrades would be reasonably inexpensive! (This has already happened once -- her friend has holding the thing up in the air to demonstrate where a mouse plugged into it, lost his grip... and dropped it ~1.5m onto the floor. Arrggg!)

Nowadays I'd do the same, and the Brother multifunction has LAN. But the HP printer is now well over 10 years old and lasts and lasts. Back then there were no LAN printers, at least not in a somewhat sane price range.

Yes, it's almost to the point where you'd better buy an exact same box again so you have a spare. Probably best to configure and then store. Else, if this box croaks your whole system will be dead in the water. If your phones run through this I'd definitely have a spare.

Well there's a good argument for switching to Linux... :-)

If you really feel the need to use separate machines, perhaps you could at least use good quality, stable-but-inexpensive machines? A $500 or even $1k desktop rather than a fancy $3k rack-mount PC gives you $2500 with which you can buy an awful lot of electricity...

I'm thinking that's a very smart idea... I do have individual spare components (DSL modem, routers, etc.) that could be pressed into service, but we're definitely talking some hours of, "let me remember/figure out how to get everything hooked up/configured again" rather than just "swap the box with this identical one and call it good."

The phone system does run through this, although at least there cell phones are a good backup.

What sort of power consumption? The little box I am using is a catastrophe waiting to happen (*way* too much power in *way* too small a space!). I don't sweat it because I have a spare (and can get more of them) but object to it "on principle" :<

It's also a *wicked* kluge! I think the only things "standard" on/in it are the CONNECTORS! :< (well, it does use a laptop drive but no "regular boards", etc.)

Ha! I'd have asked *him* how *he* was going to fix it! :>

I disagree. Get some RELIABLE hardware and SOFTWARE (I don't think NT4 fits in that category). I see up-times of 100+ days EASILY. And, usually the only reason the machine comes down is because I wanted to upgrade an OS or change some hardware out.

Yup. BT: Wife called (we have a regular landline) and said her email is on the fritz. A minor challenge was the fact that I was about 2000 miles away in a hotel ...

Cell phones are a good backup but it doesn't help when people call your regular number and leave a few important messages that you can no longer retrieve. I hope your web based phone company has at least some sort of "dial-in" access so you can listen to voice mails with a cell phone.

Or buy a used server:

The power adapter is only good to 60W, so I'd guess that typically it's probably more like 30W or less -- probably under 20W just idling.

With a dual-core Atom CPU, it's noticeably slow if you're trying to do, e.g., SPICE simulations on it, but for web surfing, word processing, etc. -- what my mother uses it for -- it's plenty snappy.

He's a retired chemistry professor... I don't think he knows how. :-)

Exactly! Unless your configuration changes often (in which case, ask yourself "why"?), just build an exact duplicate ("cold spare") and hide it someplace. I.e., you should be able to swap it in and not know that anything has "changed".

(this can often be a bit tricky to do as you'll want it to have the same IP as the original box which means having both of them "on line" while you are configuring the second will cause problems)

Wow, $99.99 & free shipping -- that is cheap!

Ah, I think the brick for this one is more like *120*W! Like I said... it feels like a catastrophe waiting to happen!

The problem (IMO) is that it was designed to be a *complete* PC -- not an "appliance". And, since it was trying to be *tiny*, the idea of being able to ADD stuff to it (PCI cards) was not possible. So, *it* had to have EVERYTHING that you might

So, it has 1600x1200x24 video, audio, firewire, USB, PCMCIA, IrDA (!), DVD-R/W (actually, i think I replaced the original drive with the writer :-/ ), etc. All of those things take power so... it's great when/if you need them but, when you don't, you can't just remove them! :(

This is more of a general purpose machine. E.g., 2.4GHz P4. It works great when you just want to talk to it with an X terminal (i.e., you save power on the "client" end) as you can do just about anything that you could on a "real" computer -- and in similar time.

The problem is it doesn't know how to save power effectively when not needed.

Ah, I guess they only teach those guys how to *break* things! :>

(you don't often hear EXPLOSIONS coming out of EE labs!)

Not as cheap as the Dell 4350 I'm supposed to pick up for free, this weekend.

It has 3, 35 GB hard drives, but the 'Server 2000' was deleted. I've been looking for something to play with Apache on, anyway. :)

Before you invest much time in it, give *all* of the boards a good "looking over" for bad caps, etc. I've seen lots of Dells with bad caps (including servers -- the 2500 is notorious for bad caps on the power sharing board) and, if someone is getting rid of a machine, I often question if it isn't, perhaps, because they were "having problems"

You can convert W2K to W2KS by carefully tweeking a few registry values (though I am not sure that gives you all of the *services* available in W2KS).

Apache will run on damn near anything! Even an old desktop machine.