Re: [cobalt-users] Possible low end Qube replacement?

["Paul Warner" <pwarner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Found this on Slashdot...
>
> http://www.emergecore.com/products/features.php
> http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=471
>
> Looks a little skimpy on the hardware side (laptop 20GB hard drive and
> 128 MB of RAM), but I like the 4 Ethernet ports and PCMCIA "drive" !!
>
>

I have a client with several Toshiba Magnia SG-20's at satellite offices.
They have some quirks, but have proved to be reliable and fairly
feature-rich for providing an iptunnels based firewall, VPN, samba, squid,
php, my/SQL in a small box with an integrated 7-port switch and built-in
modem for oob management.  They can be had for under $300 on eBay (new) or
Toshiba sells them direct for like $2000!?  Various models are out there -
look for one with 2x20g drives.  They can be configured to provide 40g space
or for nightly snapshot/mirror.  Having ripped one apart, they come with
128mb of RAM, but have a second slot and used PC133 memory.  I've not tried
256mb SIMMs, but you can add your own 128 in the second slot to get more.
They use an Orinoco 8092.11b card for wireless access.  Someone more
familiar with config of hardware could likely make other cards work (without
support from Toshiba, of course).  They are pre-configured to act as a
toaster and only accept ONE variant of this card.  I tried to fight one into
accepting a b/g card and gave-up.

DIGS:  No re-install disk.  Pulling the HD out and ghosting is OK if you
have the semi-mirrored drives since you can pull the second and keep running
on the first (they're NOT hot-swap, you do need to power-down to swipe the
drive).  There's an AGP and IDE connector on the system board as well as
keyboard/mouse which are all hidden by the chassis.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com has steep prices but all the info...

-- Paul