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The WRT54GL: A 54Mbps router from 2005 still makes millions for Linksys
- cocotino 10y agoHm, it costs EUR 47,73 here in Amazon... How is it still at that high price?
- ceejayoz 10y agoBecause people still buy it? Same reason a TI-83 calculator still costs a hundred bucks.
- cvwright 10y agoThe model's reputation for reliability probably plays a big role here. Read the reviews of almost any other modern wifi router, and you'll see lots of complaints about even expensive models frying themselves in the first year.
- bnolsen 10y agoI still keep old wrt54g's around for backup duty. But I really do want a router that's actively kept up to date. Last year i bought a xiaomi mini miwifi (less than 20usd at the time). With openwrt it ran mostly okay but the AC was occasionally locking up requiring a reboot. Thankfully with 15.03.1 that now seems to be fixed. Ordered another one of these for my parents who were having serious problems with netgear router that I hope to get soon. Not having gigabit is a bummer on these but they do well for low speed residential service and they are super cheap!
- ausjke 10y agoMine went dead after about 8 years of use, and really 11G is a bit slow these days when multiple devices started streaming. I wish Linksys can have a reasonably priced 11N version that can load open source code to continue this legacy.
- itp 10y agoYou could look at the WRT1200AC. It's available as a certified refurb on amazon.com for $90, and as part of their WRT line is intended to support open source firmwares.
- loopbit 10y ago> as part of their WRT line is intended to support open source firmwares Not sure about the 1200, but I have the WRT610N and it has never worked completely with Open/DD-WRT. The best I got (before leaving it and returning to the original firmware) was a functional router but no USB and no 5GHz band.
- casenjo 10y agoWow that's really surprising. Is it one of the later revisions? I'm running the 610N with DD-WRT and I the 5GHz band running just fine @ 300 mbps
- lmns 10y ago>and as part of their WRT line is intended to support open source firmwares. The wireless driver is crap, though. The last time I checked it wasn't recommended due to wireless problems. https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/recommended_routers https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/recommended_routers
- logfromblammo 10y agoI still have two. I'm really having a hard time making the decision to replace them, when they still work as well now as they did 8 years ago, running Tomato the whole time. But the number of devices connecting and the bandwidth they require are only increasing, and 802.11n or 802.11ac would really help with some of them. I also have desire for a relatively inexpensive wireless router that does not attempt to prevent me from loading on it whatever software that pleases me to run. I will not pay a full purchase price for any device that I cannot own. That doesn't necessarily mean I won't ever have such a device; it just means there has to be some way to jailbreak it before I will consider buying.
- nabla9 10y agoI bought mine around 2007 and I have used it continuously.
- Torgo 10y agoStill have two originals in operation in older relatives' houses. God bless this little device.
- CaptSpify 10y agoDo you hear that hardware manufacturers? People are willing to pay a lot, and you don't have to redesign/upgrade every year, if you make a simple, hackable, usable system! I wish more hardware companies thought like this
- h1srf 10y agoThe question is would you buy it at a higher price point, like say $300?
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoYup. There's a lot of products or software I'd pay a lot more for if they were open. But I understand I'm in the extreme minority.
- CaptSpify 10y agoAbsolutely. I actually have 2 >$200 routers that I use at home. I bought them specifically because I could put pfsense on them.
- deelowe 10y agoMost companies don't want to make open/hackable solutions, because it makes the hardware a commodity. After all, they don't make the chips, they probably contract out the PCB design and manufacture or it's at least done via some sort of JDM process. What's left at that point? Brand, mechanical design, and software... There's not a whole lot to differentiate yourself if you let go of the software piece.
- rcthompson 10y agoIf anyone is looking for a cheap up-to-date replacement that runs OpenWRT, I recently replaced my WRT54GL with a TP-Link Archer C7, and I've been quite happily running OpenWRT on it for the past few months. Note that you have to do a bit of hackery to install OpenWRT, since the stock firmware refuses to install unsigned updates through the web interface: https://pappp.net/?p=1525 https://pappp.net/?p=1525
- kw71 10y agoI don't know how my find compares to yours but I amassed a fleet of used Netgear WNDR3800's, and replaced their old stock OpenWRT with modern version. Compared to the linksys boxes, they have GigE, better radios (speed and range) more memory and a more powerful CPU. I might use the USB ports in the future for a disk or some serial thing I want to provide connectivity for.
- rcthompson 10y agoThe C7 has 802.11ac support. I don't have any devices that support 802.11ac yet, but I also don't want to have to buy another router in a long time, which is why I went for it. The C7 sells for under $100 on Amazon, while most other equal-speed routers from other companies are substantially more expensive, e.g. the Linksys WRT AC1200 which sells for $150 (despite actually being slower), or Buffalo's AirStation AC1750 which sells for $160.
- sandGorgon 10y agoThe Archer C7 (and the equivalent D7) is a spectacular device and is frequently rated as the best buy for your dollar. It has 512mb for the NAT table so it can accommodate an office full of people skyping/downloading/torrenting
- Scaevolus 10y agoOpenWRT on the Archer C7 doesn't support the hardware NAT acceleration (aka cut through forwarding), so you won't be able to achieve more than ~150Mbps.
- 616c 10y agoI have been curious, given all the echoes here about FCC wireless radio regulation, if these devices will in fact increase in price, and those like it, as this niche community covets them. Kind of like as I watch the OpenGarages movement, the next time I buy a car I might pay premium for something vintage with the most minimal computerized components. Haha.
- yason 10y agoI have a WRT54G that I bought in 2004 or 2005. I haven't even replaced its firmware because it does what I need, and it still just works and always has. No lagging, no crashes, nothing but straight uptime year after year. I do wonder if I should buy a GL model as a "spare" in case it goes dead at some point.
- wang_li 10y agoHave you tried to log into the admin web page lately? The default firmware generates SSL certificates signed with algorithms that modern browsers have black listed and won't access the page.
- spash 10y agoBesides DD-WRT, which can be at times quite flaky a unreliable on WRT54GL with its outdated OS base and a slow UI (and also a real pain to keep track on the few working firmware revisions as time progresses over the years; many DD-WRT users and the DD-WRT site will sadly keep suggesting to use half a decade old firmware for it [1][2][3] and any 'official' activity seems to have stopped years ago) and the Open-WRT which sadly hasn't supported WRT54GL for the last several generations [4] despite its by now somewhat ironic name, there's also Tomato by Shibby [5] (note: This is a fork of the original 'well known' Tomato that stopped its development half a decade ago - though surprisingly people sill run even that one), which is amazingly supported today with regular and frequent updates [6], latest security fixes and modern revisions of base software and OS tools, with properly working kernel 2.6-generation, IPv6, QoS and not at the very least with the staple slick Tomato configuration interface. If you happen to run a WRT54GL, you must give Shibby's Tomato a try sometime to see what this piece of hardware can still do. Disclaimer: I'm by no means affiliated, but run WRT54GL hardware actively and at times I'm still regularly amazed at what Shibby can squeeze out of the mere 4MB of flash space and a hardware that wouldn't properly run a smartwatch alarm applet in 2016. -- [1] - http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL [2] - http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=51486 http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=51486 [3] - http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=288371 http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=288371 If you're lucky, you may also end up with gems like this: > Malachi - DD-WRT Guru > Your router was made in the 1800's. Why do you need firmware made yesterday. [4] - https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt54g https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt54g [5] - http://tomato.groov.pl/ http://tomato.groov.pl/ [6] - http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=78 http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=78
- rconti 10y agoI always loved Tomato; ran it on my 54GLs which I still have (though one is pre-L branding). I had a Cisco E3000 that I tried to love; bought it because it supported DD-WRT so once I got sick of the Cisco firmware I tried DD-WRT. It seemed like an endless headache and never worked quite right, so I flashed back to the stock Cisco stuff; I realized the stock OS supported everything I needed anyway, and was more stable. I wish consumer stuff had more cool graphs and the like.
- swsieber 10y agoObligatory comment/question: What routers do you use to run OpenWRT? What's the price like?
- freestockoption 10y agoI have a DIR-505L ($15) I use for traveling. Has OpenVPN and SSIDs setup to bridge to the VPN (on layer 2). So when I connect to that special SSID it's as if I'm still onsite. It's also just a wallwart, so it's easy to travel with and doesn't look suspicious. I also have a DIR-835 ($20). Also use it as a VPN router (both client and server). It's a lot more powerful than the DIR-505L and does 5ghz. I used to use a WRT54GL, but then 802.11N came along and I also wanted 5ghz. So I got a Linksys E3000, but I later bricked it during a botched firmware upgrade. The uptime on that thing was like 400 days until I had a power outage. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding a OpenWRT router that will support gigabit routing for the WAN. So now I use the AT&T supplied router/modem. Unfortunately with AT&T, bridging just does double NATing (and the box has a connection limit of ~2000 for ipv4).
- zhongfu 10y agoI've got a GL.iNet 6416A ($23) for portable use -- it has two Ethernet ports along with 802.11n on 2.4GHz and a USB port. Pretty nifty for on-the-go use, but don't think about it if you need to hit speeds over 35Mbps. That replaces my old modded TP-Link TL-WR703N ($35), since it beat it in almost everything. Now, I use it as a wireless bridge for an Ethernet-only device. I've got two Xiaomi Mi WiFi Minis (150 CNY, or ~$24) as budget APs. They do 802.11ac, but the three Ethernet ports on it only does 100Mbps. There's also a TP-Link TL-WDR3600 (free, but $60 on Amazon) that I use in another location. Works fine, and can easily hit the WAN's speed at 100Mbps. 802.11n over 5GHz also easily hits 90Mbps, which is nice. It's been incredibly stable, and hasn't went down in almost two years. I've got a handful of other routers with OpenWRT on them, but I no longer use them for a variety of reasons. Another TL-WDR3600 I had was replaced by an EdgeRouter Lite, since it couldn't really saturate my current Internet connection (1000/500).
- epx 10y agoI have a powerline adapter (made in 2014) that hangs every other day if I let it operate in 802.11n (and it hangs every day if in mixed mode). Pinging it from my Raspy mitigates but does not eliminate the problem. I even installed a wall switch in the wall plug so it would be easier to recycle! In the end, I had to put it in 802.11g mode to have a slower but dependable home network. There are 3 routers in the house, fortunately the others do work in 802.11n without needing a power cycle from time to time (the most stable is the one supplied by the cable company - that's really surprising). This is the scenario of consumer-grade WiFi - way less reliable than 10 years ago. When I replace the powerline by a blue cable, I can choose between buying a very expensive AP, or a 'modern' AP that freezes, or a WRT54GL that works.
- kyriakos 10y agomy father is still using one which i bought 8-9 years ago. running dd-wrt, its unbelievably stable.
- Waterluvian 10y agoDoesn't the TI 83 calculator still sell quite well? It's a solid machine that does one thing and does it well.
- antisthenes 10y agoI don't think that's quite an accurate comparison, considering schools almost nearly force you to purchase the Ti-83 (or they have been for the past few decades until very recently, when the Ti Nspire took over) The WRT54GL is a purely market solution in a commoditized market where the consumer is not pressured or forced into buying it.
- Waterluvian 10y agoYou may be right. Haven't thought of that.
- phamilton 10y agoI feel like the cost of materials has gone up, since the chips are now old enough to command a premium.
- overcast 10y agoI still have mine, going strong with Tomato firmware on it. Haven't touched the thing in years. Amazing piece of hardware, even at 50/5mbit service.
- hypercluster 10y agoGreat and just today it made me quite angry, wifi on mine is not very reliable.
- Lagged2Death 10y agoWhat I want to know (and what the article doesn't address) is: Why are so many other wi-fi routers such trash? I mean, I sort of know why: Because manufacturers keep making new hardware without the long-term support commitment that's necessary to get the firmware truly sorted out. But how did the market come to this? I would have thought that the average home router customer, at this point, groans in dread when its time to buy a router. To heck with crazy speeds my "broadband" cannot realize, never mind bleeding-edge protocols and questionable NAS USB ports. Don't we all want something that doesn't need a manual reset every couple of days? Why isn't uptime the #1 selling point by now?
- awqrre 10y agoI am pretty happy with the stock software on the RT-N66U and it is a very stable router (I've had it for a few years)... but of course I wish that all hardware was open and that it's software was open source and that I could install DD-WRT, OpenWrt, etc if I wanted to.
- otabdeveloper 10y agoUp until a just few years ago the Internet was fueled by extensive growth: router manufacturers (among others) made profits by selling to people who had never bought routers before. This has all but ended now, and people shopping for their second or third router will be making different decisions.
- mathgeek 10y ago> router manufacturers (among others) made profits by selling to people who had never bought routers before. They also make a huge chunk of their profits from resellers such as ISP's who will rent you a router with your access.
- fuzzfactor 10y agoYou can sell a lot of garbage to consumers who have never bought that product type before. If the full-performance product is crowded out, it's sub-type can be lost forever. Once you enter the Garbaceous Period it can be the actual end of a higher quality era.
- mehdix 10y agoTen years ago I was studying CS in a conservative small religios city in central Iran. My girlfriend was living in a dormitory one kilometer away. Due to limitations I was unable to meet her freely. I borrowed a WRT54G and an outdoor antenna and made a WAN. The default output power was insufficient for my antenna and my intended target laptop in the other side of the city, however. With WRT54G having its firmware open sourced, I downloaded a custom built of it and hacked the device to increase the output power. Not only I circumvent the limitations, but I used an old 300mhz Intel PC as an internet gateway to let her access internet using her laptop. We were finally able to communicate freely at any time. My thanks to Linksys for crating this fantastic hardware and opening it to the world.
- arkitaip 10y agoThat's brilliant. Thank you for sharing.
- devereaux 10y agoAnd this is why the FCC requirements make little sense. Such products are used all over the world. Forcefully limiting the freedom in one locale is catering to the lowest common denominator. Instead, the ability to use spectrum should be controlled by the end user, through some hardware measure (ex: jumpers) that is done at the user own responsibility.
- colanderman 10y ago"The government should not regulate the shared limited resource of radio bandwidth because it is useful to work around restrictions on free speech" is nonsensical. If your government significantly curtails free speech, then it either is also so fascist that it doesn't care what you think about bandwidth regulation, or (as in the case of the GP) it is so technologically incompetent that it effectively does not regulate the airwaves. Either way your suggestion is useless.
- bhickey 10y agoYou're misrepresenting what the GP post said and being obnoxious about it. Given that there are different regulatory regimens, locking down hardware to a particular locale may be inappropriate. For example, Channel 14 is fine in Japan and 13 in the EU but not the US. Restricting the whole world to 11 channels to comply with US law would be silly.
- brudgers 10y agoI have a WRT54G [not GL] that currently lives as the wireless interface an XBox 360. Most versions of the G are upgradable to to DD-WRT. That's what the "WRT" in DD-WRT was all about. Around the time I bought it, and in the years when the G's were still available, the GL's sold at a substantial premium. Maybe there's something magical about $69 pricing. The HP12C lives on after 35 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-12c-financial-programmable-calculator-p-12c-aba--1?jumpid=ba_r329_hhocse&aoid=44661&003=6663635&010=12C%23ABA&ci_sku=12C%23ABA&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw= http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-12c-financial-programmable-...
- goombastic 10y agoI have a 11 year old WRTGL that got hit by lightning, fried two ports including the WAN port, but the other ports still work and it is still going strong.
- alwaysdownvoted 10y agoCould it be that the ability to more fully control a computer, e.g., a router, makes the computer more valuable? What use are greater feature specifications if the user does not have anything close to full control over the computer? How about a computer that where the seller makes it deliberately difficult to open, or impossible to add RAM, or threatens repair shops with litigation? When the user powers on, the computer immediately starts phoning home to various endpoints controlled by the seller and the user cannot turn this off. Are users presumed to be inept? Does it matter if this computer has a sexier form factor and better specifications, not to mention a higher price tag, than another one without the restrictions on tinkering?
- jagermo 10y agoI love these things. They were the basis for my first article in 2004. Its horrible to read now, but I had so much fun tinkering and researching and getting my first story as a tech journalist out to the readers.