[windows on a mac or vice versa]

Or, if you just want to read Mac disks on a PC there's a cool proggie called "MacDrive" (www.macdrive.com).

[Use a old pc as a wireless router]

The Linux-based solutions already recommended are superior to an ISA server in many regards.

ISA is also very expensive...so...I presme you have a legit license for it?

[167°F CPU Temp]

Is that a 2.8E series chip (Prescott)? I've got one @ the office that I consider hot @ 120F...they are however a *very* warm CPU...and...if you are running a Prescott the fan will spin much higher than 2800RPM while the chip is under load for a while...

...what HSF are you using?

[Alternatives to commercial software]

Yep, The MaximusDVD link does appear to be out of action...well, it's still a great proggie! I just checked and you can find active links to it through google.

Well, scrap that anyways...I cannot believe I forgot VLC Media Player! It will happily play DVD's (and near anything else you throw at it).

[best stable software for editing dvd's]

My absolute favorite for this...

DVD-Lab by Mediachance (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/)

It's the best $100 you'll ever spend...

[XP Professional Welcome Screen]

Grab TweakUI from the MS site (it'll be an MS "Powertoy"). It has a neat little section to configure auto-logon...(it's just a reg setting, but, TweakUI is much quicker and easier for us laymen).

[Alternatives to commercial software]

4. Maximus DVD (http://www.maximusdvd.com)

15. Freeburn (http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeburn/)

22. FileZilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/)