Anyone has some piece of scrap lying around or knows how to get it right
Its based on the assumption that you like networking configuration and control.
You could run your own DHCP , proxy and DNS server from that box.
Switches cost next to nothing.
Lol after a couple years I realized that I should have bought different hardware years ago, silly me.
Lol about the dlink , I know its cheap crap however there are certain models that work really well.
If course cisco is the way to go.
Although I must say that I also had some nightmarish experience with linksys.
We all know the strange cases where DMZ just doesnt work, portforwarding magic that always fails
I know lucid is a linux guy and im pretty sure hes gonna love doing the stuff himself.
But I'd also vote for some proper cisco router they are expensive however.