Parallel processing is a form of computing in which a number of activities are carried out concurrently on multiple machines so that the time required to solve a given problem is minimized. The advent of low cost high performance Pentium machines and PC based LINUX operating system have attracted many researchers to explore parallel processing experiments on PCs. The PC based clusters provide low cost solution of high performance computing. In this paper, we provide detailed steps on setting up a LINUX cluster. Also, a cluster application has been discussed by mapping a compute intensive scientific algorithm. Furthermore, a scheme is presented for distance computing, in which the cluster based parallel processing facilities are extended to the remote users through the Internet.