I'm considering using my old PII400 for a music server to get all of the music stuff off of my Pentium IV. I guess I've got two questions....

1. Will a Pentium II work well for a music server providing it is only being used for Jrec and tRio and maybe DHCP?

2. Should I use Windows 2000 or some version of Linux? I've got an old verion of win2k (also xp home) laying around and Redhat 5.2 but if I went with Linux I might just by the latest version since it's only about forty bux.

Also I would want to stuff this computer off in a closet so I would want to be able to remotely access it from another compuer.

Any ideas?

1. Will a Pentium II work well for a music server providing it is only being used for Jrec and tRio and maybe DHCP?

No problem, plenty fast enough (assuming it has a sensible amount of ram).

2. Should I use Windows 2000 or some version of Linux? I've got an old verion of win2k (also xp home) laying around and Redhat 5.2 but if I went with Linux I might just by the latest version since it's only about forty bux.

It may well be easier to get Jrec running under Linux, but you then have more messing around to get the Receiver to boot.

Also I would want to stuff this computer off in a closet so I would want to be able to remotely access it from another compuer.

That is easy enough, whichever route you take. With Linux you can just telnet/ssh into the box, with Win2k you can install TightVNC.

My setup is could be similiar in nature to yours... It's actually an IBM 1U rack mount server with 512 MB memory and a 800 MHz Celeron chip. I stashed (2) 120 GB drives in it and it's doing pretty well. I did put Windows 2000 Advanced Server on it just so I could run Terminal Services on it. I have another similiar setup running Windows XP Professional for the same reason... I stash both of those servers in my basement and stream audio and video to all of my other systems. (I do use the ARM server for pushing out the ARF file)

JRec and tRio were really easy to set up and use only about 3-5% CPU when all three of my Rio's are running in sync. The only catch would be with JRec and MySQL. MySQL will eat up whatever CPU you throw at it. But my boxes run 24 hours a day and I've never had an issue.

Terminal Services is awesome if you like living with Windows. (I can even use my Wireless PocketPC to log in and look around... I'm even using it to control a Web Browser session for the tRio Web applet!!)

But it think you'd have really easy luck either way. I guess it would depend on what else you'd be using it for.

Enjoy!
_dave

No problem, plenty fast enough (assuming it has a sensible amount of ram).
Although I currently would consider 128MB too little in a new computer; would it be sensible in this application? I have no problem buying more if there will be a noticeable difference in performance.

With Linux you can just telnet/ssh into the box, with Win2k you can install TightVNC.
Excellent, I forgot about Tight VNC.

Terminal Services is awesome if you like living with Windows. (I can even use my Wireless PocketPC to log in and look around... I'm even using it to control a Web Browser session for the tRio Web applet!!)
Oooohh....Nice! I've never used Terminal services before but do have Windows 2000 Server (I believe the program is there... I just did a quick search in help) here at the office so I'll have to look into it. It would actually be beneficial to learn how Terminal Services works in the office environment as well as at home. Any thing in particular I should "know" before getting into Terminal services?

Edit: Actually, at first glance it looks like Terminal Service could be a bit complicated.

Although I currently would consider 128MB too little in a new computer; would it be sensible in this application? I have no problem buying more if there will be a noticeable difference in performance.

For non-interactive use like this you will probably survive on 128MB. You can always add some later if need be. Both my Linux boxes only have 128MB and until I upgraded it my PII400 Win2k server only had 128MB.

Edit: Actually, at first glance it looks like Terminal Service could be a bit complicated.
Nevermind that was overly simple to get running at the office and at first glance...I like VERY much.

Oooohh....Nice! I've never used Terminal services before but do have Windows 2000 Server (I believe the program is there... I just did a quick search in help) here at the office so I'll have to look into it. It would actually be beneficial to learn how Terminal Services works in the office environment as well as at home. Any thing in particular I should "know" before getting into Terminal services?

First thing to know, the server side of Terminal Services only works on the server version of Win2k, it doesn't work on Professional. On WinXP you have a dumbed down version of it called Remote Desktop (dumbed down in that only one user can connect at a time and when they are connected no-one can use the machine you are connecting to locally).

Edit: Actually, at first glance it looks like Terminal Service could be a bit complicated.

If you are using in in the Application Server mode (lots of users connecting to a single server to run Word, Excel etc) then yes it gets complicated. In your case you don't want to do this because:

- you need licences to run in Application Server mode
- you don't need lots of people connecting

You can just run in Remote Adminstration mode, which allows two simultaneous connections at a time. There is nothing special you need to do in Remote Administration mode (whereas in Application Server mode when you install new software you need to jump through hoops to install the software a special way).

To install Terminal Services on a box that does have them already go to "Control Panel", "Add/Remove Programs", "Add/Remove Windows components". Find the terminal services entry and check it, don't check the terminal services licencing entry. When you hit next you will be asked which mode to operate in.

Then that's it, you're good to go. Just connect to the machine with the Terminal Services client (or if you have it the new, improved Remote Desktop connection).

Nevermind that was overly simple to get running at the office and at first glance...I like VERY much.

Great, you beat me to it. Are you using the nice new Remote Desktop client or the old and less nice Terminal Services client ?

If you aren't using the Remote Desktop client I would recommend it. You can get it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/rdclientdl.asp

If you are using in in the Application Server mode (lots of users connecting to a single server to run Word, Excel etc) then yes it gets complicated.
Yes, that is exactly what I was seeing so I was having second thoughts.

You can just run in Remote Adminstration mode, which allows two simultaneous connections at a time.
That is exactly what I did.

Thanks Andy, looks like I did everything EXCATLY like you said. This can come in handy here at the office and I'm looking forward to using it on my Music Server

Are you using the nice new Remote Desktop client or the old and less nice Terminal Services client ?
The terminal services client. How do I use the "Remote Desktop" client?

Edit: I see you edited your post to answer my question.

This can come in handy here at the office and I'm looking forward to using it on my Music Server

My machines tend to also have TightVNC installed on them. Terminal Services is very good and generally faster than TightVNC. However it does have one downside, in that you are connnecting to a new session on the server, rather than connecting to the active console session you would get sat at the machine. Sometimes you really need to actual console session, which is when I fall back on TightVNC.

One think to look out for with Terminal Services is ending up with two idle sessions, hence stopping you from connecting. There are various settings in the Terminal Services manager that you can tweak to adjust how quickly sessions are disconnected. This is another case where having TightVNC around is useful as well, so you can go in and clear the TS sessions.

Well, after a late night my PII400 is up and running with Windows 2000 Server using terminal services as well as tight vnc, arm instead of jrec and will soon add another hard drive (around 200Gig) as well as a card to recognize the capacity in the near future. For now I'll leave the music files on the PIV's 360GB Raid0 array.

Thanks again for the help.