well if that machine is running windows 3.11, rather than writing it off, i would say there are a lot of operating systems out there which can do just the networking stuff you want using less resources than windows 3.11 does. win3.11 is a mess in a lot of ways in my opinion. try basiclinux 1.8:
http://hetteh.iq.pl/bl/index.htmlthat's the page for it, maybe you want to look into basiclinux 2.0 instead:
http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/here's a URL where you can download everything you need for basiclinux:
http://www.maxtux.co.uk/dist/basiclinux/all the links are on the page, but with that url you can see a full list of what's available.
to get you used to the idea, here's an article about a guy who used basiclinux to turn an old writeoff machine into a useful networked one:
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue77/kollar.htmland here's the official FAQ for this distro:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/faq.txtif you do choose to use basiclinux, probably i would recommend keeping win3.11 on there in the meantime, also do bear in mind that basiclinux is fiddly, and while it works well, it is not the most intuitive thing to set up (although it's pretty darn easy if you read all the docs actually), i have done the win3.11 moving over to basiclinux thing myself and i thoroughly enjoyed it and found it to be of great benefit. it'll take you a little while, though so be prepared.
that's my advice anyway.
[ March 26, 2003: Message edited by: Calum: crusader for justice & peace ]