Cluster experience, anyone?

[Fred Barclay]

Background: I have 2 working machines--a 32-bit desktop and a 64-bit laptop. I also have another 32-bit desktop w/ a broken processor (processor shuts the computer down within 1-2 seconds of booting) and a broken hdd BUT I have another laptop with a broken screen, another bad hdd, and a perfectly-good 32-bit processor. (All the 32-bit machines are Intel processors, the 64-bit is AMD).

I'm learning a bit of hacking ("cracking", rather) both for self-defense and to get more understanding about computers in general. As it is, it takes me a few days to crack passwords (via wordlists). I also do some numerical computation, so I write code in python 3 to help--as of now, this is pretty fast, but when I eventually get around to calculating pi to the nth decimal place...
It struck me that both of these tasks are very similar; i.e. they're both basically number crunching. So my thought is to first repair the broken desktop with the laptop processor, and then build a cluster out of this machine and my working desktop to use for number crunching. What I need now is experience, suggestions, and any info that might be even remotely helpful.

I plan on:
1. Connecting the two via a spare ethernet cable.
2. Installing Debian Stable as my OS. Any better ideas? CentOS, Oracle, *BSD, etc? I'm definitely more of an "apt" guy than yum, but I can make do if there's a real reason to run another OS.
Also, I plan on installing the OS without a DE. I'm pretty comfy on the command line (#thanksArch), and I don't see any reason to waste any space with a DE. If you think I really should install xfce, or mate, or lxde please let me know && why.
3. This next part I'm a bit foggy on. I'd like to hook the machines up so that I can access them (it?) remotely. My ISP has given me a dynamic IP, alas, and there's no chance of switching to static. Do you have any ideas what I could use for SECURE remote access. I've used ssh a bit but only on a LAN.
I'll need this to:
(a) send remote captured handshake files (and other files) for decrypting. I'd capture them on my lappy and send them in to the cluster for processing.
(b) execute commands. If I need something calculated and I'm remote, I'd like to be able to tell the cluster what to do so I can save my lappy's resources.
This is probably material for another thread, but I wanted to throw this out here.

I really appreciate any info you might have about any of this!
Fred

[xenopeek]

my thought is to first repair the broken desktop with the laptop processor

Laptop processors are generally soldered onto the mainboard I believe. Even if the processor is in a socket, you'll need to make sure your laptop and desktop use the exact same socket type which is unlikely.

I have no experience with clusters. Sorry to be the bearer of probably bad news for the hardware plans

[Fred Barclay]

...and it's a different type socket. Oh, well. (BTW: the processor was removable.)

I'd mark this SOLVED but I still would like any info or hints that anyone might have.

[exploder]

You can get used processors from ebay really cheap. My 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo cost $10.00 with free shipping. My Athlon 64 x2 4400+ was $6.00 with free shipping.

[xenopeek]

Some info on creating a Beowulf cluster at home: http://www.linux.org/threads/building-a ... ster.7858/. That links to a page on the Ubuntu wiki for more details, so this sounds like something you should be able to do on Linux Mint.