Fun things to do with a server on a slow link?

April 18, 2009 6:42 AM

What cool/geeky/fun/useful things can you do with a Linux-running server (no GUI, on 24/7) that has a very fast CPU but a very slow internet connection?
posted by Mwongozi to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Folding@Home
posted by Mach5 at 6:55 AM on April 18

If you have the disk space you could calculate hashes for passwords, and build "rainbow" tables for them. MD5, SHA-*, WPA-PSK, etc. Dump them to a flat text file, compress, and burn to DVDs.

Do a little digging on google, and you will find many utilities to do it for you, or build your own using your favorite language. Make sure you have a good word file to use as your plaintext, or you could also go algorithmically and go through the series of 1 through Z up to a certain disk size.

I've done this because I was bored one day and had cycles being wasted on the desktop. Made a 10GB MD5 hash table for giggles using python in about a month's time. Very useful to have if you want to try testing security on your own website or applications using hashes as a security measure.
posted by Vicarious at 8:08 AM on April 18 [1 favorite]

2nding Folding@Home
posted by InsanePenguin at 9:01 AM on April 18

Similar to Folding@Home is SETI@Home... Help search for extraterrestrials!
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 9:38 AM on April 18

Maybe give some processing power for OpenStreetMap?
posted by a007r at 4:02 PM on April 18

screen+irssi
posted by pwnguin at 4:39 PM on April 18

electricsheep.org distributed fractal movies.
posted by Freen at 5:16 PM on April 19

Home print server. Then you won't have to worry about whether the desktop is on or off, or attach the printer directly to the laptop.
posted by pwnguin at 12:11 PM on April 22