Digital Trends

Turn it into a firewall and/or router

If you think your old computer is just too slow to be used as a desktop or you just have enough workstations, you can turn that old computer into a router and/or firewall. You may already have a SOHO router/firewall but there are a few open-source projects that help you turn that old hardware into a very efficient router.

One such project is called ClarkConnect. I've been using ClarkConnect for almost a year now and wouldn't go back to a SOHO router. It can be installed on a system as old as a Pentium Pro and still be very useful. Not only can ClarkConnect act as a firewall and router for your network, you can use it as a web server, FTP server, file server (for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems), a media server and many more applications. All you need is two network cards and once the system is installed, you don't even need a monitor. The entire system can be remotely operated and configured via a web browser on your network. My ClarkConnect server acts as a firewall and router, as well as a file and media server. It's only a Pentium III with 384MB of RAM, and I've never had an issue with speed.

Other popular open-source firewall projects include Coyote Linux, m0n0wall and Smoothwall.

Learn new skills and contribute to an open-source project

There are literally thousands of open-source projects on the net that offer some very useful tools and a great learning opportunity. Projects range from Website scripts to Web-based learning and Web-based databases. A great place to start is by learning about PHP and mySQL. PHP is a server-sided scripting language that is easy to learn and well-suited for Web development. mySQL is an open-source database that powers a large percentage of the Web's databases. There are many Website scripts created with PHP and mySQL that allow you to easily develop and manage a Website. Some examples are PHP-Nuke, Postnuke, and phpWebsite.

I'm a big fan of online learning and have been following the development of Moodle, a Web-based learning development tool. It is a course management tool that is useful for all types of corporate learning or e-learning.