Comment Re:Another day, another hole... (Score 1) 236
Noise and size aren't an issue, as it is in the crawlspace. Out of sight, out of mind... quite literally! All maintenance is done over the network.
All kinds of crap has gotten piled in front of it since I set it up; I haven't needed physical access to the box in over 3 years. When I eventually do need to get at it (which, at this rate, probably won't be until Ubuntu Server 10.04 goes EOL in about a year) I will need to un-bury it first!
I hear you on the Realtek NICs too. While their poor reputation was indeed deserved in the past, they seem to have gotten a lot better over the past few years. I don't know if they have fixed bugs in their silicon, or if recent drivers have implemented workarounds; but whatever the reason, they seem to work reasonably well now.