While browsing around my local Microcenter, I noticed that they were selling these cool little Gigafast Ethernet 5-port network mini switches for 29.95. Well, there was also a rebate for it for 29.95. This meant that, if I was smart and remembered to send my rebate form in, I could get it for free!

Now, this is especially cool, since Mary's brother, Brian, his friend, Dave, and I get together somewhat regularly to play Ages of Empires II on the lan. Now, when they would come over, I always had to disconnect my cable modem, run the linksys router all the way downstairs to the living room and then hook our machines up. With the new switch, I can just plug it in, then plug the computers in. We tried it out last Sunday, and it worked great! Plus, it is super small, so I could see taking this somewhere when I go out and meet friends at a bar for geekfests, or the like. :)

This switch worked absolutely flawlessly on Sunday. I'm always a little bit nervous about just plugging the computers in and having them see each other, but this worked like a champ. AWESOME!