This weekend I spent some time being productive and built a new firewall for PNP LAN. The firewall will be running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and is capable of load balancing two internet connections. With it, we will be able to manage connections more effectively, and throttle connections that are unwanted (read: torrents).

In the past we have had issues with devices buckling under the full load of a LAN party. Steam, torrents, and other downloads are very resource heavy on the average SOHO router. In the past we've tried fairly beefy router appliances running DD-WRT, a firmware modification that proves to boost the performance of many cheap routers, however these still do not achieve the power that we need. That should no longer be a problem.

I know I'm not the only geeky one, so here is an item list as well as a few pictures of final build:

1GB Crucial PC2 5300
320GB 7200RPM Western Digital SATA II
JetWay JATOM-GM1-230-LF Intel Atom 230
2x Intel 10/100/1000
APEX Black Steel Micro ATX Tower

 
(Click above images for a larger view)