Ask HN: Small, cheap server? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Small, cheap server?

25 pointstheophilus11 comments

I'm working on a free culture project that will place small wifi servers at various high traffic places and allow people to upload/download content anonymously. I'm looking for a device that runs linux, supports a standard disk drive, and can act as a wifi access point. Any suggestions?

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Check out http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/CloudPlug

See also //http:www.tonidoplug.com

Looks like the same part under a different manufacturing label.

These are all rebranded versions of the SheevaPlug and GuruPlug, manufactured by Marvell. So, if you're looking to write your own software stack on top, just buy from Marvell... https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SheevaPlug

Are you looking for a prebuilt solution or are you willing to fab your own ? Here are a few things you could look at a) http://www.compulab.co.il/t3530/html/t3530-cm-datasheet.htm b) the gumstix modules c) nxp has some devkits d) hack the sheeva plug to do what you want.

I have never used this part, but it is cheap, and supposedly supported by the OpenWRT project.

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8el2DcrRjLoHNdQ8

soekris has some interesting stuff. I'm not sure what kind of processing power you would need, they are low power 486/586 class processors. you could get something like the net5501 (http://www.soekris.com/net5501.htm) with a case that has room for a 2.5" SATA drive and 1 PCI slot that you could use for a wifi card. I've only seen them used with BSD but there is documentation out there that explains how to get linux working on them.

http://www.ubnt.com/rspro or http://pcengines.ch/alix.htm

You could save on the disk drive and set up a PXE over HTTP boot configuration, then keep any data on the cloud. Just a thought

Linksys wrt54g(dd-wrt) + s3

Some micro pc that can run DD-WRT would probably be ideal.

I would suggest TonidoPlug. It supports webdav and has a web based file server as well that allows people to upload and download from a browser

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