486 Machines

[MonMotha]

I was unaware of any low bandwidth X options, but that would probably be 
more efficient than VNC because of how VNC has to transmit all the mouse 
movements, etc back and get the screen update (virtual framebuffer).  I 
thought VNC might be an option though because even though it's about an 
extra 10MB per server (at 1024x768), only 8 would be needed it seems 
here, and that's only 80MB.  Low bandwidth X would probably be the way 
to go, and there are some more reliable ISA ethernet cards than the 
standard issue NE2000s.  I've had  great luck with my 3Com Etherlink III 
(yes, I like 3Com) 3C509B-TPO.  Then again, I haven't had many problems 
with some of my genuine NE2000s either, it's the cheap clones where you 
run into problems.

If you put the 10mbit on a SWITCH, where the bandwidht isn't shared 
between ports, with a 100mbit uplink to the server, you might even be 
able to get standard X done, some initial draws might be a bit slow though.

--MonMotha

Warren Togami wrote:

> 
> I thought that ISA 10mbit would be sufficient for X too, but I have had
> far too many X instabilities with all ISA cards that I have tried.  X
> would randomly die, an quite frequently.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, VNC is another option that is even lower bandwidth than X, although
> it loads the server far more than X.  A virtual framebuffer for VNC is
> created on the server for each client.  That's a lot of memory usage
> when you add up all the thin clients.  RAM is currently a limited
> resource on cheap off-the-shelf Linux servers.  2-3.5GB is the most you
> can do.
> 
> There is something called "low bandwidth X" that I haven't tried yet. 
> This may be a less server memory intensive solution than VNC.
> 
> VNC makes it nearly impossible for me to use stuff like VirtualFS to
> allow the thin clients to use local floppies, CD-ROM and sound devices. 
> You can read about VirtualFS here:
> http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/virtualfs/
> 
> Fortunately there are a few new Dual Athlon motherboards coming soon
> that support up to 8GB RAM.  Very nice, especially with 512MB DDR SDRAM
> registered ECC modules for less than $80 at most places.
>