rpld by Chris Lightfoot and James McKenzie for Linux is a powerful tool for booting network cards that would otherwise need Etherboot disks or lead an existence devoid of any remote booting and other fun things.
the rpld.mail describes my first set
of patches to the original.
NOTE: these patches are against the 1.2 version
a second set of patches adds a timeout (specified in requests per seconds), so a hierarchy of backup servers can be reliably built.
a revolutionary new method of booting is to use an Etherboot boot sector in the rpld-reply to combine the ease of use and flexibility (menus, bsd-kernel- and dos-floppy-booting) of etherboot with the R(i)PL-roms you're stuck with. mail me for details, the basic plot comes out well in this rpld.conf-file.