There are many online retailers where you can acquire the Raspberry Pi base system so it is easy to buy one. This is the most power currently available Pi (eventually there will be a Model C). The most important component is to get a Raspberry Pi Model B with 512MB of RAM. There are several items that you will need to obtain to get a fully-functional Raspberry Pi system. For less than $50 you can get a fully-functional networked computer with many optional external interfaces. The inventors of the Raspberry Pi created the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Raspberry Pi supports Python and Scratch (a graphical programming language). The Raspberry Pi was a project that grew out of the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory as an inexpensive computer to aid in the teaching of computer programming to students. For less than $50 you can have a remotely accessible network device for testing and troubleshooting up and working in less than 30 minutes. In this article we cover how to get a Raspberry Pi up and going and how to configure it for network monitoring purposes. The Raspberry Pi can also be a useful tool in conventional IT environments and can be an inexpensive way to perform remote network monitoring. It has been remarkably successful and there have been over 1 million Raspberry Pi systems sold.

The Raspberry Pi is an amazing little inexpensive Linux-based computer. ( Scott NetworkWorld) Using an inexpensive Raspberry Pi system for remote network troubleshooting

Raspberry pi monitor network usage