@alexhaydock this thinkpad is what i currently run my l2tp router on: https://av.vimuser.org/router.jpg
though it now has 2 usb ethernet dongles instead of that cardbus ethernet adapter. in addition to the onboard ethernet.
a bit hacky. this is the "upcoming project" i have in mind, because this was done for testing purposes but then i had to quickly move my servers 2 years ago and haven't bothered "fixing" it since.
i'll re-do it with openbsd+xl2tpd, similar to the debian setup, on proper hardware.