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The Yellow Network Coalition takes donations of old computers, mostly 486's, and refurbishes and tests them, installs linux, and donates them for use as IP masquerading servers and user workstations.

I gave them my 486/100 after many years of hard service, and they have it in use somewhere.

They're good people, and give free lessons on how to do network administration, firewalling, linux administration and the like.

Mike

No, not a troll but inaccurate information quoted from memory.

While I think the inspiration does go back to the white bikes of Amsterdam, the YNC FAQ says they're actually inspired by the Yellow Bike Coalition, which apparently did originally leave yellow bikes on the street, but now lends them for long term use.

Apparently the expectation that anyone could take a yellow bike often meant that someone who'd ridden to a friend's house or business would have their bike borrowed away from them when the left the bike unlocked to go inside.

Please see the YNC's contact's page for the information you request, also their volunters page and their mailing list info.

Note that while I'm on their mailing list and I'm pleased to have donated hardware to the YNC, I don't run it. I'll try to start a chapter myself once I get settled but at the present time my life is in too much flux.

Please see the YNC's contact's page for the information you request, also their volunters page and their mailing list info.

Note that while I'm on their mailing list and I'm pleased to have donated hardware to the YNC, I don't run it. I'll try to start a chapter myself once I get settled but at the present time my life is in too much flux.

Please see the YNC's contact's page for the information you request, also their volunters page and their mailing list info.

Note that while I'm on their mailing list and I'm pleased to have donated hardware to the YNC, I don't run it. I'll try to start a chapter myself once I get settled but at the present time my life is in too much flux.

Please see the YNC's contact's page for the information you request, also their volunters page and their mailing list info.

Note that while I'm on their mailing list and I'm pleased to have donated hardware to the YNC, I don't run it. I'll try to start a chapter myself once I get settled but at the present time my life is in too much flux.

Please consider donating your hardware to the Yellow Network Coalition.

Inspired by the free yellow bicycles of Amsterdam (which you can just pick up on the street corner and ride around), the YNC takes donations of hardware, mostly old 486's, fixes them up, installs linux on them, and gives them away for free for use either as NAT servers and firewalls (so people may have multiple machines of any OS on a single network connection) and as Linux user workstations.

I gave my venerable old 486 to them. Like George Washington's axe, it started life as a 386, then got a new microprocessor, motherboard, CPU, case, memory and hard disk before finally going to the YNC.

Note that unlike some operating systems out there, Linux runs just fine on a 486 - I was using it as a web server on mine and could run the server and XWindows at the same time and never noticed any performance problems. Windows 95 was a dog on the same machine.

They also plan to build free internet kiosks in neighborhoods. You'd just be able to walk up to a weather-sealed machine and start browsing at no cost. I've heard the founder has one of these outside his house. What they'd do is hang off the DSL connection inside neighboring homes and businesses, perhaps through wireless.

They also give lessons on setting up firewalls and such, and go around giving public talks on their activities.

They have chapters in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, California, as well as Japan. I'll probably set one up in Maine if my home purchase there comes through.

Some Useful Websites:

The Yellow Network Coalition takes old 486's and turns them into firewalls and IP masquerading servers they give away for free to people who have cable modems and DSL. I gave them my 486 when I moved. They also set up free public-access kiosks. These guys are inspired by the freely available yellow bicycles in Amsterdam.

They Need Your Donations of Old 486's and Other Hardware

The Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems discusses security holes, bugs in software, user and usability problems that cause such trouble as security problems, and carries security announcements.

The CERT Coordination Center carries authoritative announcements of security problems and what you can do to fix them; provides rapid response to security emergencies while they are in progress.

I've also heard BugTaq is good and better than CERT for timely information but don't have a URL handy.