equant:
Some of us are ancient, back from the days when an Apple II could connect to the internet via a shell account from a local ISP. (Which is fairly rare these days, even with dialup.) So the idea of hooking up an old computer via a new computer seems a bit strange. After all, why wouldn't you just use the new computer for internet access in that case.
Other factors may be involved here too. Full computers are big and noisy and chew up power. A lot of those issues can be reduced if you buy a special device. The AVR32 development kit runs Linux, has an ethernet port and serial (IIRC), is quite low power and quiet and small. Some companies have sold similar devices (without the serial port, so you'd need a USB to RS-232 adapter) in fancy plastic cases. I would imagine that they could be repurposed for an application like this. But you're still pretty much going through a computer so the solution feels somewhat less satisfying.
Oh, and for added credit, what about tossing all of those new computers and just using the old stuff. Around 1997 or 1998 my only computer was an Apple IIe. It was used for everything from writing papers to surfing the web. And I do mean only computer. If I had another computer it was a broken 486. Around 1998, I was using just a Mac IIci on an ADSL connection. I remember some idiot telling me that the Mac IIci was too slow to handle ADSL and that it would be simple to upgrade it to a Pentium by swapping in a new motherboard. >
Some of us are ancient, back from the days when an Apple II could connect to the internet via a shell account from a local ISP. (Which is fairly rare these days, even with dialup.) So the idea of hooking up an old computer via a new computer seems a bit strange. After all, why wouldn't you just use the new computer for internet access in that case.
Other factors may be involved here too. Full computers are big and noisy and chew up power. A lot of those issues can be reduced if you buy a special device. The AVR32 development kit runs Linux, has an ethernet port and serial (IIRC), is quite low power and quiet and small. Some companies have sold similar devices (without the serial port, so you'd need a USB to RS-232 adapter) in fancy plastic cases. I would imagine that they could be repurposed for an application like this. But you're still pretty much going through a computer so the solution feels somewhat less satisfying.
Oh, and for added credit, what about tossing all of those new computers and just using the old stuff. Around 1997 or 1998 my only computer was an Apple IIe. It was used for everything from writing papers to surfing the web. And I do mean only computer. If I had another computer it was a broken 486. Around 1998, I was using just a Mac IIci on an ADSL connection. I remember some idiot telling me that the Mac IIci was too slow to handle ADSL and that it would be simple to upgrade it to a Pentium by swapping in a new motherboard. >