What to do with retired Linksys WRT54GL?

[Bob Waltenspiel]

Viking funeral!

When I asked "What interesting things can I do with them?" this is what I was talking about!

 

[NUTW0RX]

It feels good to be a...

 

[Samir]

I have several pieces of old gear that becomes very useful and reliable as a simple 4 port switch where you need one.

I've never played with 3rd party firmwares before--send one to me?

 

[Bob Waltenspiel]

I've never played with 3rd party firmwares before--send one to me?

I would be happy to. Follow the link in my previous message.

 

[Razor512]

Keep it, never know when you need to do some testing with new devices on ancient 802.11g networks.

 

[Bob Waltenspiel]

Keep it, never know when you need to do some testing with new devices on ancient 802.11g networks.

Keeping three of them in a box isn't all that interesting.

Because they've been sitting on a shelf for more than a year and I really don't need to keep three of them for testing, they are listed on ebay. No bites yet.

If these routers don't sell, I'll sit on them a bit longer to see if a need to use them as a switch pops up. If not, I'll just take them to electronic recycling.

Funny when I created the listing on ebay for these routers, I also listed two other items. Both are already sold and shipped.

 

[Samir]

I would be happy to. Follow the link in my previous message.

LOL!

 

[Samir]

If these routers don't sell, I'll sit on them a bit longer to see if a need to use them as a switch pops up. If not, I'll just take them to electronic recycling.

I'd rather you give them away as 4 port switches since someone always needs a 4 port switch. I actually have to install one at one of our businesses to avoid running another cat5 between two locations.

 

[NUTW0RX]

Keep it, never know when you need to do some testing with new devices on ancient 802.11g networks.

Here's a random pile of "maybe one day I might play with it" which never comes. Thinking they could make interesting target practice.

 

[Samir]

Here's a random pile of "maybe one day I might play with it" which never comes. Thinking they could make interesting target practice.

View attachment 8484

Wow, I could put half of that to work immediately. I'm actually looking to purchase stuff like what you've got in that pile--amazing how long that stuff lasts, isn't it?

 

[pege63]

Here's a random pile of "maybe one day I might play with it" which never comes. Thinking they could make interesting target practice.

View attachment 8484

Give them away to needy

 

[TheManFromUncle]

Give them away to needy

The needy these days are very picky.

 

[pege63]

I meant in needed in developing countries

 

[Samir]

The needy these days are very picky.

And isn't it crazy? Those that have nothing want the best, and want it given to them.

 

[Samir]

I meant in needed in developing countries

These people are the worst. They see what nice shiny things we have and only want those things as if they cost us nothing and they're as common as air and cost just as much. As if we didn't earn them and got them by the virtue of just living in a developed nation.

My dad and I were talking about this the other day. We passed by an abandoned building from the 1950s that was still standing. We were talking about how the homeless want handouts and yet if we were homeless, we'd earn enough to buy a tent and live inside that house until we earned enough to move out. We wouldn't expect a handout, we'd earn our way. That's the problem these days--no one is willing to earn their way anymore, even if it is earning the way up to a modern router by learning the ropes on an older one.

 

[pege63]

Not at all my experience last year we changed out all the computers at work, we donated everyone and it was received with open arms.

 

[Samir]

Not at all my experience last year we changed out all the computers at work, we donated everyone and it was received with open arms.

That's good to hear. But if the gear was new enough, it was maybe hawked for money as secondhand gear in the undeveloped nations goes for the same price as new.

I actually came up with a business plan at one point to export all dead/non-working networking gear from the US to a developing nation for repair/refurb. The repair labor is too high here in the US and the price point for refurbed gear is less, whereas labor is cheaper in the developing nations and you can get the same price point for refurbed gear as brand new. Recyclers and people would just hand over dead gear like old cell phones (which undergo a very similar process).

 

[sfx2000]

Worst case - put them up as a Guest WLAN with WEP - so we can support the old-school 802.11b clients - Nintendo DS is a good example...

Put the WRT54 in to the DMZ of the primary, and then secure clients/services...

 

[RMerlin]

Worst case - put them up as a Guest WLAN with WEP - so we can support the old-school 802.11b clients - Nintendo DS is a good example...

Great way to open your network to the whole world... No amount of securing would prevent a third party from connecting to it, then at best using your Internet connection, at worse gaining LAN access as well. You're getting access to the WAN-facing router, from there you can use one of the numerous security holes found in today's routers to get control of that main router. And from there it's pretty much game over for your LAN.

 

[sfx2000]

Great way to open your network to the whole world... No amount of securing would prevent a third party from connecting to it, then at best using your Internet connection, at worse gaining LAN access as well. You're getting access to the WAN-facing router, from there you can use one of the numerous security holes found in today's routers to get control of that main router. And from there it's pretty much game over for your LAN.

Not if it's in the DMZ in gateway mode - since it's NAT'ed (NAT is a firewall) and no ports opened, it's perfectly safe - as for the devices attaching to the NAT'ed GW, they can reach the internet, but they should not be able to access the intranet LAN side as a result of the DMZ (depending on the implementation of course, but a true DMZ is somewhere in the middle) - as an aside, might consider putting the DHCP scope on other private range (let's say if the primary Router is 192.168.1.0/24, put the NAT'ed GW on 172.16.1.0/12) - fix the GW WAN side to a static IP (not reserved DHCP, but true static) inside the DHCP scope of the primary...

Devices on the NAT'ed GW obviously will be double NAT'ed, but that's a small price to pay.

As long as one is aware of the risks, I see less of a problem here - but always be mindful that WEP can be a problem - alternate would be do WPA1/TKIP for that Legacy side, and then that locks things down fairly nice for the B/G legacy clients, and this is a good thing for the G/N clients that do support WPA2/AES on the primary AP.