I'm not too sure whether anyone's aware of it, but the 1541 Ultimate II+, and I assume 1541 Ultimate II as well as Ultimate 64's are now capable of communication via the Ethernet port using UltimateTerm V2.3 - And damn is it fast.
Even better is the fact that UltimateTerm also comes bundled with a fully featured IRC client for the C64 called UntimateChat 64 v1.3 and it works a treat! Just don't try to send more than two lines of text at a time or the software appears to hang.
Screenies:
I'm pretty sure I'm retiring my user port WiFi modem...