It's not that _that_ off topic, is it? You wouldn't want to run your network on them, but these RPi's can still be operationally useful to network engineers (or fire fighters!).
I used a couple of RPis recently to demonstrate an IPv6 routing issue to a large ISP (heya fellas :), and having this sort of visibility was what allowed me to determine that it really was an upstream issue. Having pcaps or traceroutes and ping logs (whatever is suitable for the problem) can help both ends understand the issue clearly from the customers perspective and to get a fix in place more quickly.
Cheap, small & open. A fantastic operational tool for remote diagnosis purposes.
Pete
On 3/07/2014, at 8:19 AM, Steve Holdoway
I regularly use OpenVPN on 80/tcp. It's about the only thing I've found that works worldwide ( well, I've not tried China, but it works over the whole of the Americas and Europe ) over wired/wireless/cell, whereas the default 1984/udp is often firewalled. I'll take the tradeoff in performance for connectivity!
I'm working on a similar problem and am looking at a CubieTruck based solution, as it also is very easy to add a backup battery to them, and I need a bit of extra grunt. USB Cell sticks are cheap, but soldering on a decent aerial pigtail on can be tricky with old eyes!
( Yeah, I know it's off-topic, but it's the least I can do given the help you're providing me with stuff I don't really understand too well! )
Steve