Connect them all

One of these days I'm just going to buy a few cheap used computers and build myself a network. Actually I have no practical need for a network whatsoever but it would be nice to have one :) And I should work on my network installation knowledge.

I could use an old Pentium MMX machine as a linux router. With some work, any linux distro may be configured to route and prioritize any incoming and outgoing traffic in a network. If you don't like linux, you may

1. Get Windows and pay $$s for some 3rd party software or
2. Get a basic, simple and decent Cisco router for lots of $$s.

Setting a linux based router would also give me a chance to learn linux installation and configuration properly. It's unfortunate that no matter how much I dislike Windows, I have neither the time or the patience to switch to linux, but to set up the router I would gladly work on linux as long as necessary.

(Details on the rest of the network to follow...)