Christoph Kauch/Rol Schwarz

Look at your Wi-Fi router. It's probably black and roughly the shape of a rectangle, with perhaps an antenna or two sticking out. It's dead boring. Now, look at what makers Christoph Kauch and Rol Schwarz created. It's also a router, but it looks like the flippin' starship Enterprise. Their router is so much better than your router.

Squishing a router into a model of the USS Enterprise isn't so easy. It helps that it's not a full-on router, but rather an access point. A series of photos shows the build process starting with the pieces of a standard Revell model kit and an Ubiquiti UniFi AP-Pro access point. The Ubiquiti is torn apart and reassembled inside the model. A special wood base in the shape of the Starfleet insignia hides the plug.

Most of the access point is tucked into the saucer section. The upper windows allow the LED light from the Ubiquiti to shine through, so you can look at it and imagine the ship is humming with human and alien activity. The result is a gadget that is functional, beautiful and nerdy all at the same time.

The makers answered questions about the build on Reddit, noting that the access point is slightly warm to the touch, but is performing fine without getting too hot. The original access point came in a round case, so it was a natural fit for the shape of the Enterprise.

If I had an access point like that, I would say, "Beam me onto the Internet, Scotty!" every time I connected to Wi-Fi. I would probably also change the wireless network name to "Garbage Scow" to throw off the invading Klingon forces. You can't be too careful when you're protecting a valuable supply of quadrotriticale.