So I am thinking of exploring plug computers because the idea of having cheap, low power computers that are essentially mobile appeals to me. This is especially appealing because I want to setup a little private web server for local development and as a super mini file server that I can connect to access basic media (HTML pages, text files, documents and images).

My demands are very light. I want to be able to run a very small webserver that has all the standard features of a webserver such as PHP5, MySQL or SQLite running on Nginx, LightHTTP or even Apache2, depending if the hardware can handle it. This is for personal use so I only expect at most 1-2 concurrent users. Flash storage or HDD storage is no issue for me, 4gb is plenty for me.

I want to do this with the following requirements;

• minimal power consumption, maximum uptime.
• sleek or mobile hardware profile. I don't wan't to build a Mini-ITX PC because that is already too big and the power consumption goes up.
• minimal peripherals. I wan't to try and avoid keyboards, a mouse and monitor. This is a distant third, so I really don't care. I simply prefer a small hardware profile and low power consumption.

So with the requirements above, I'm am looking into the following

• Rasberry Pi
• SheevaPlug
• GuruPlog
• Tonido Plug
• Old iPhone or iPod touch
• MK802 II
• olimex

So far, Raspberry Pi looks like my best bet because its cheap and powerful. However, as I write this, most people who ordered them did not get them yet. So in a few months, I hope someone experiments with it and see what issues they come up against. Then Ill decide from there.

Things to lookout for

Based on some quick research, things I should lookout for when revisiting this topic in a few months are

• memory issues regarding Raspberry Pi. Apparently, the USB & ethernet Bus are shared which means speeds will go down if you are copying files from a USB device when having concurrent users accessing the network. FOr my needs, it should be no big deal.
• Raspberry Pi has like 256mb flash ram so that limits the ability of apache2 quite a bit. I'll see what others run into.
• SheevaPlug apparently has a short lifespan. This is anecdotal, but I want my mini server to last a long time (i'm thinking years). Keep warranty, customer support and or manufacturing quality in mind.

Bonus features

If the hardware can handle it, things that would be cool.

• wireless relay. Simply plugging in a USB wifi dongle to act as a signal booster in my home network would be cool. I am a big home wifi user and my gets crappier the farther away you go away from the downstairs computer. Having a signal booster/ or relay should solve this problem.

• Bittorrent client and seedbox.

$ wget –mirror -p –convert-links -P ./LOCAL-DIR WEBSITE-URL

• –mirror : turn on options suitable for mirroring.
• -p : download all files that are necessary to properly display a given HTML page.
• –convert-links : after the download, convert the links in document for local viewing.
• -P ./LOCAL-DIR : save all the files and directories to the specified directory.

Yes, this is possible. By default, #Windows will not allow the logon over a network with a blank password. There is a KB article that details how to allow blank passwords for network logons. You can disable blank password restrictions by using a policy. To locate and change this policy:

1. Click Start, point to Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK to start the Group Policy Editor.
2. Open;

• Computer Configuration
• Windows Settings
• Security Settings
• Local Policies
• Security Options
• Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only.

1. Click Disabled, and then click OK.

Quit Group Policy Editor NOTE: By default, this policy is on (enabled). Under the cover, in Registry, this is controlled by

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa]
"LimitBlankPasswordUse"=dword:00000000
 Therefore, alternatively, this can be achieved by directly setting 

LimitBlankPasswordUse to ``. Setting it to 1 will restore the default behavior.