Don’t Throw Away Your Old Router — Do This Instead

Not like many units in your house, you in all probability do not assume a lot about upgrading your router. Routers can work for a very long time, and it is simple to miss when one is not getting firmware updates anymore or does not support the latest Wi-Fi standards. This could make upgrading to a brand new Wi-Fi router tougher, since throwing away a superbly functioning piece of kit feels wasteful.

Fortunately, this does not should be a difficulty. Previous routers can simply be repurposed to have use at the same time as a secondary or tertiary machine. Whereas newer fashions provide higher safety, vary, and efficiency and are thus the most effective to your major machine, previous routers can make the most of the truth that most networking fundamentals have not modified in many years. You’ve got some ways to repurpose an previous router as a substitute of sending it off to the landfill or for recycling.

In case your new Wi-Fi router struggles to succeed in corners of your house, think about using your previous router as a devoted entry level. With this technique, you needn’t buy a wireless extender or one other single-purpose piece of tech.

There are two approaches you’ll be able to take: wired or wi-fi. A wired connection brings steady connectivity and quick speeds, however you need an Ethernet line running again to your major router. This won’t be attainable a number of rooms away except you are comfy pulling cable by your partitions. 

I like to recommend towards broadcasting two Wi-Fi alerts in shut proximity, since this will result in wi-fi interference and worse efficiency. The excellent news is you can disable particular frequencies on each routers to keep away from congestion. An excellent choice is configuring the previous router to broadcast on the two.4GHz band, whereas disabling that frequency on the newer router. It’s because 2.4GHz alerts penetrate partitions higher, whereas many of the Wi-Fi enhancements over the previous decade have utilized to higher frequencies like 5GHz and 6GHz.

Many routers assist wi-fi repeater or bridge performance, so test the admin panel or guide for these phrases. On my older TP-Hyperlink router, this function is hidden inside a number of sub-menus below the WDS bridging label. The draw back with this method is that your router has to make use of a part of its restricted wi-fi capability to speak together with your router. This interprets to slower real-world speeds if you’re linked to the secondary router.

A small variety of routers may double up as a mesh Wi-Fi node. Asus calls this function AiMesh on its routers, and it lets you combine totally different fashions to create one unified community. If you have not chosen a brand new router but and your previous one gives this, purchase one in the identical household to make the most of it.

In case your new router does not have sufficient LAN ports to attach high-bandwidth units like sensible TVs, computer systems and gaming consoles, you should use your old router as a switch. A fundamental community swap sometimes prices between $10 and $20, and is yet one more single-use machine you needn’t purchase if in case you have an previous router mendacity round.

Establishing a router in swap mode is comparatively simple. Merely run an Ethernet cable out of your new router to the previous one, utilizing LAN ports on every, and join your units to the remaining ports on the previous router. Ensure you do not plug something into the previous router’s WAN port.

Many routers provide Entry Level (AP) or Swap modes of their administrative settings, which you will must allow by accessing the router’s admin panel. When you do not see certainly one of these modes, you will must disable the router’s DHCP server, together with some other routing choices like firewall and NAT, manually.

The identical warning about wi-fi interference applies right here as effectively. You must disable all wi-fi performance on the previous router in case you solely care concerning the onboard Ethernet ports.

Many routers have a USB port that is simple to miss. However you should use this in some ways, together with to attach a storage machine or printer. The latter lets you provoke print jobs from any machine linked to your router, even wirelessly. If in case you have an previous printer that lacks Wi-Fi assist, this may be a simple workaround.

Connecting a storage machine like an exterior onerous drive or thumb drive can flip your router right into a rudimentary storage server. In different phrases, you’ll be able to learn and write to the storage machine from any machine on the community. Devoted network-attached storage (NAS) machines and the drives for them value a good bit, so that is a reasonable approach to get began. Simply understand that routers do not embrace any reliability or backup options, which is the place precise NAS units shine. And the USB port in your router is probably going not the quickest, so efficiency might be restricted. 

After connecting the machine, poke round in your router’s admin panel to test its USB machine sharing settings for the most effective expertise.

Many fashionable routers assist VPN performance, however enabling this function means routing all visitors by the tunnel. You possibly can set up your VPN app on particular person units as a substitute, however that may result in battery drain over lengthy durations. That is the place repurposing an previous router right into a VPN consumer makes a variety of sense. Utilizing a devoted router for the VPN that operates independently out of your major community means you’ll be able to hook up with it if you need, with out operating all visitors by it or forcing your cellular units to deal with the workload.

The precise directions fluctuate by VPN supplier and router producer, however you will typically begin by connecting your previous router to the brand new one and enabling entry level mode. Then, search for VPN settings within the router’s administration panel, activate the function, and supply your VPN credentials.

Whereas we do not all the time take into consideration them on this means, routers are basically low-power computer systems, sometimes pairing an environment friendly CPU with small quantities of RAM and reminiscence. They accordingly ship with light-weight working techniques designed for his or her supposed function: routing community visitors and the whole lot else related to that job. This creates issues when producers cease offering the newest firmware to your router, or when its restricted nature prevents you from doing what you need.

Fortunately for us, complete enterprising open-source communities have constructed customized firmware designed particularly for routers. Initiatives like OpenWRT exchange a router’s manufacturer-provided software program with a extra versatile OS that provides you better management over the machine, together with the flexibility to put in third-party apps like torrent shoppers. 

These are an amazing choice to maintain your previous router going for longer. Most of the ideas above are additionally simpler to arrange on customized router firmware like DD-WRT or FreshTomato. I exploit OpenWRT, as I discover it much less restrictive than many routers’ default working techniques.

The draw back to customized firmware is that not all routers are supported. Given the sheer variety of fashions, you will must learn by every challenge’s documentation to slim down compatibility to your particular machine.