i saw this done when i was back in highschool, but i don't know how to do it. i have a bunch of old computers kicking around my house and i want to turn one into an offline server for testing my mud so i don't crash a server used by others.

i have everything needed to connect to it, i just need help setting it up.
also any advice on a free operating system to run for it would be great, all my old computers have clean drives.

Your mud shouldn't crash an entire server when it crashes. Should just kill the process it's running on. But beyond that, are these computers running Windows or some flavor of *nix?

they have clean drives (aka no operating system)

Ahh. I have been exploring this possibility a bit lately myself, as I know have about 5-6 (reasonably) decent computers that I don't use. I think that if you ran a Linux variation on it that you would have more flexibility/capability, as there are some extremely resource-frugal distros of Linux out there if you look. I've also found that there are plenty of good Windows tutorials for doing such a thing out there, just haven't taken the time to actually do it.

Personally I'd roll with Debian. There is a large support community and most things are done pretty easily via the command line. It's also stable as a rock, and what my home old-dekstop-turned-server has been running without issue since 2006.

Need some additional programs/libs? aptitude search <thing> then aptitude install <thing> and go about your merry day :).

Yes, I'd also go with Debian or Ubuntu (Ubuntu if you need more recent packages and don't want to futz around with setting up Debian to use its different package repositories).

i had downloaded and burnt myself a version of i had downloaded and burnt myself a version of Ubuntu off the net, but mine had been burnt at too high of a speed or the file i downloaded was bad (kept getting an error message when i tried to use it).

but at work last night, the I.T. guy gave me a copy of it that he had, so i just have to load it to my other computer.

but i hit another snag, my dad saw the electric bill from last month and he is pissed at the amount of power we had used. so i don't think i'll be able to run two computers at the same time right now.

i want to thank you all for your help, but it looks like i'll need to find a good free server to run on to start working on my mud.

http://www.virtualbox.org

You have a couple other options, ya know. First off, you don't have to have Linux to run a MUD. It really depends on what kind of MUD you're looking to run. If you're stuck with windows, using a dikurivative, you can do a few things. First is you can check out andLinux. It's a version of Linux that runs like a program on windows. It gives you access to virtually every tool you have in Linux on your windows desktop pretty much natively. The only drawback, is it doesn't work on 64bit arch. The other thing you can do is hunt down cygwin. It's a Linux emulator that tons of people use to create their MUDs. Then, there's running linux in a Virtual machine using something like VMWare.

You have a bunch of options out there for running a MUD on any operating system, just gotta search them out ;).

I'd push for VirtualBox over VMware … :)

i tried to download virturalbox, but it won't work on my computer for some stupid reason. i think i'll go with a good free server.

A typical home server only draws around $5/month in power if you leave it on 24/7. I don't know your situation, so I don't know if that's still a deciding factor, but I just thought I'd share.

It really depends where you are Deimos. I pay very little for power because California buys a lot of it. Conversely, people in Cali pay out the rear ;)

i understand what you are saying, but the problem isn't the cost of running 2 computers at once, but how much power we are currently using. if my dad sees me running 2 computers right now he'll go ballistic. right now he wants me to unplug all my game systems when i'm not using them.

Keep in mind: many consumer-level internet service providers do not allow you to run servers from them as part of their Terms of Service; generally it will go under the radar, but its worth reading your ISPs agreement in detail to make sure you can.

Maya/Rudha

the original plan was to use a computer as an offline server connected to only one computer to work on the code, not to host. i was going to use it to simulate hosting to test everything. it wasn't going to be connected to the net.
but since i can't do that for unexpected reasons, i'm seeing about hosting on a free server.

i also think i found a code closer to what i want then what i was planing on using, so i don't think i'll have to do the major modification work i was planing, so i kinda have no need to have to test in the ways i was thinking.

1) You only need one computer, and it doesn't matter what operating system you are running.
2) You'll probably have to make some modifications anyway as all hosts don't run the same operating system.
3) Unplugging equipment not in use makes sense for a number of reasons.
4) Get a job. Help pay the electric bill.

i do have a job, and i do help pay the bills. my dad watches that planet green channel alot and doesn't like us "wasting power". the funny part is every x-mas he put so many lights up on the house i swear it can be seen from outer space.

I went with ubuntu. Favor debian in general. I've used virtualbox as well as andlinux. End of the day you're truly better off with a real install with a dedicated partition for a server.

Unrelated note, I've started using linux recovery partions for windows machines.

Move out. Expand your carbon footprint. ;-)