the forums at degreez.net

As i want to have my 2 pc's behind tight firewalls, ive condiered using my old computer just for downloading/file serving

i dont have a monitor for it.. my specs

Netgear RP614v2 router/NAT/4-port 10/100 switch
2 pc's XP pro, and XP home.. SP2

proposed comp specs

98SE fresh install, all updates
1ghz Celeron (skt370)
128mb PC100
~5gb OS disk, 20gb storage disk, 5400rpm
onboard 10/100 Ethernet

I need to have FULL access to it from the two other computers on the network, and somehow control it remotely, so i wont need to connect anything to it.. possibly LAN wakeup too.. is there any software for this?

Is it worth it/feasible?

You can use VNC software to remote admin any PC. Set up the server on the dedicated downloaded, and run the client on another machine. PCs wont boot without a keyboard, so dont leave the machine entirely headless if you want it to come back on its own after a glitch. Theres nothing like coming back fro holiday, expecting X gigs to have downloaded, and find its been sitting at 'No keyboard detected, press F1 to continue' for a week and a half. A monitor will only be needed while your setting it up, it'll boot without one.

Im not sure on how you'll get a network share through your firewall without leaving a big hole in it. Might be simplest to set up an FTP server on it and transfer files through that.

No idea on LAN wakeup, its not something I use. Either its on when I tell it to be on directly, or its on 24/7.

DMZ maybe?

pc will boot without keyboard (and anything else except bare minimum for that matter) if you set "halt on: no errors" in bios. if windows would agree to boot is another matter. but using windows 98 for dedicated filesharing is probably not the best solution anyway.