Rat's nests of CAT5, tracing with ping, these are a few of my favorite things... Especially when everything's all neatly connected to a single device that magically does everything I need. I'm still going to publish Part III of my guide on building
Kenny, but in the meantime, I've found a fantastic replacement for a whole pile of old Linksys gear. I haven't named him yet, but I'm learning to love my new
Mikrotik RouterBoard RB2011L, which I acquired for a quite reasonable $99 from
r0c-n0c.com.
The user interface for this
RouterOS-based device is awkward, non-intuitive, and very poorly documented. That said, this is an incredibly powerful device. I recommend that everyone buy one as soon as possible, before they stop making them. There are
OpenWRT works-in-progress for other Mikrotik RouterBoard platforms, and I'm crossing my fingers that this one will be appearing on that list Real Soon Now.