I still utilize some 486DX4-120 machines for certain dedicated tasks and files, some Pentium machines for other slightly more intensive tasks, and have recently dropped down as far as the 98SE OS on certain machines for certain programs that simply do not work at all well on the newer machines.
Linux has been a blessing in this regard, and working with it for so many years has taught that for many projects, working with an OS that only requires about 8MB per X-window session allows quite a lot of processing to occur.
Heck, I may someday even see if I still have some of those 8086 and 286 machines are still functional after all this time, lol! After all, how much processing power do you REALLY need to type words on the screen and save them to a text file, and then perhaps; upload them to be read on the net or as an email?
I have successfully used an 8088 with 640k to set up a network file server using the dos networking software. The only problem is with all the TSR programs in memory there isn’t enough memory left to run other programs while using it as a server.
The odd behavior I seen was when I tried to view the shares with XP or a newer OS was the fact that I could see the computer on the network but it would not let me see what shares were available on the DOS file server. Even though I could map one of the DOS shares as a network drive on the XP machine and use it. It just would not let me browse the shares without mapping. And the file name truncation appeared to be automatic when copying stuff from XP over to the dos server.
With a win 3.11 file server I can see and browse the shares on XP without mapping them. Filename truncation is also automatic when moving files from xp to 3.11. I haven’t tried viewing win 3.11 shares on WIN 7 yet so I don’t know what that would do..
I also know that you can view/map XP shares with win 3.11 and dos clients. Haven’t tried viewing win 7 shares with 3.11 or dos yet.
One thing I like doing when setting up a temporary server on a network that I strictly intend on using myself is setting it’s protocol to netbeui. Security through obscurity. No one else on the network will have the protocol installed. Packet snuffers will not show the traffic. I can move about the building while I work on stuff with my portable computer dumping data back to the temporary server and no one will notice a thing even if they are looking. And most switches will forward non routable protocols to all ports so I don’t have problems with wired connectivity. And the router will not dump it to the net.
The only problem is I can’t use wireless connectivity when using netbeui. It has to be a wired network connection at the work locations..
“Heck, I may someday even see if I still have some of those 8086 and 286 machines are still functional after all this time, lol! “
Ow….. forgot to mention something.
On using old motherboards one thing you have to worry about is bit rot in the EPROMs
The ones in the older MBs are reaching their retention lifetimes. I have several old MBs that are not useable because of the EPROM bit rot. If you have a MB that worked perfectly when you stopped using it, and it won’t work no more, then that is one of the probable causes. If you have a MB that uses straight ROMs then you won’t have to worry about that causing the death of the MB.
If you do have an old 8086/286 board that is still usable and it has an EPROM, I would highly suggest you pull it and make a backup. And then reburn the data back to the EPROM to refresh it. That will guaranty many more years of usable service.
People that collect old video game cartridges have the same problem with bit rot on the old cartridges.
The other thing that kills old MB is the CMOS backup battery. That dies and leaks corrosive liquid across the MB. When you see one that has went bad, the you will understand why it kills a MB. It just eats the traces away. If you are going to set an old MB back for long term storage, ALWAYS remove the backup battery. Just take a pair of clippers and cut the leads to remove it. That way, when you pull it back out years from now, you will have something that hasn’t been eat up to the point that it’s almost unrecognizable.
Other problems I have noted on mixing old and new equipment is using older MFM/RLL hard drives with newer motherboards.(P3/P4) If you have a newer MB with an ISA slot, you can put a MFM hard drive controller in it, and it will be able to use a hard drive that has already been low level formatted by the controller on an older MB. ..
BUT you will NOT be able to LL format the hard drive while it’s connected to the newer MB. The reason why is the program for LL formatting the hard drive is located in the BIOS. In newer MBs they left that program out of the BIOS because it was no longer used for IDE drives. Sometimes you can access the ROM on the MFM controller card with debug to LL format the drive using the program built into the MFM controller. Some controllers do not have that feature. Even if the controller does, it still leaves many HF LL formatting utilities dysfunctional because almost all of them rely on the program in BIOS to carry out the LL formatting.