speed improvements for a low end system

[Paul Miller <paul@3dillusion.com>]

I'm in the process of replacing my computer's role with an old computer,
to give my system more freedom (I don't have to be up all the time!).

Anyone have any software suggestions on how I can improve the speed on my
old 486DX/33 (8 ram, 1 ide, 2 old scsi drives, PS/1 w/ 8k i-cache!)?

This computer is only used for the following services:
* telnet (only for password changes, all shells are /usr/bin/passwd)
* html (running apache)
* pop3 (also running qmail, running from inetd)
* smtp (currently running qmail, running as a daemon)
* dns (running bind)
* ip masquerading (local -> internet, both 10mbit ethernet connections)

- nothing is done locally (except for some administration)

I listed the services in order of how fast they run (first being the
slowest, and last the fastest)  -- this isn't a heavly used system, but
when multiple events occur at the same time, it becomes extremely slow.

I want to remove all processes that take lots of cpu time and memory. 
Recompiling the kernel is also something I'm interested in -- what takes
cpu time/memory in the kernel?  Experimenting with this is too slow; it
takes several hours to recompile! 

Please don't send me messages saying that my system is too slow, and I
should upgrade.  I put that machine together from scraps lying around the
house.  I may upgrade it to a Cyrix 133+ or 166+ if I can find a
motherboard.


Thanks
-Paul


--  
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org