For a long while I've been doing LANs and the problem between them is storing everything neatly out of the way. Fortunately I've got a decent size cupboard that everything fits in, but it's still in a lot of misc gear. Eventually a giant tea crate fit the bill and was sturdy enough to carry almost everything with the exception of the switches and the server.
Conveniently there's a massive piece of plywood in the garage that should make a new box with ease.
Thanks to Dave (Pumpkin) who chatted about LIAB a while back for the uber-switch, nice big Cisco should be ample. 48 GBit ports and takes care of DHCP duties for the LAN. Pretty much the biggest thing going into the box so it has to be the basis for the foot print.
Base and sides cut, will be almost as tall as it is wide and just deep enough for the switch, power cables and cat 5 cables coming from the front. The box has to fit into a specific place in my house so cant be too much bigger than the original tea crate.
That said, its a trade off to make sure everything fits, so it'll be pretty close over all.
Above the switch is a shelf, just over 2U above the base to leave enough room for power bricks and plugs, as well as a second switch if needed.
The shelf slots into the grooves nicely but needs reinforcing.
End of the first session of building and the shelf is having a reinforcing strip added to the front to give some grip to pull it out and stop it deflecting once it has cables and such on top.
More to come in the next couple of days as the first use is next weekend at THaTLAN 2
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