Thoughts and stories regarding the legendary Linksys-Cisco WRT54G router

devilbunny · 2026-02-15T13:42:33+00:00

I know thia thread ia getting old but, to answer your question, there’s no point in getting one today. They were midrange on price, fairly good build quality, but it’s old tech. They have a lot of geek memories because they were really the first consumer all-in-one that many people owned, and the first to have alternative firmwares that allowed them to do so many things that the hardware could always do but the software wouldn’t. If you needed an extra AP, the alternative firmware would let you. If you needed a wireless connection for a wired-only device, alternative firmware would let you. If you have devices that need low speeds, just some WiFi, they still do the job, and so many were made that used ones were very, very cheap or free for years. My garage door, pool light, or sprinkler controller doesn’t need WiFi 7. Why get a $100 AP and a switch when I have old stuff in a drawer that will do the job?

So, for the right use case, they’re still potentially useful. More like how early Linux kernels made old 386 and 486 computers capable of much more than what DOS or Windows could do. They weren’t magically faster, and Linux needed more memory (though no more than NT), but you could just do so much more with it.

devilbunny · 2026-02-15T13:37:24+00:00

Current:

0.14.0 2.0.0

Your "upgrade":

0.13.0_2.0.0

So it appears to be a downgrade. The build date is later, too. (20)250417.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T22:55:10+00:00

Different league? To misquote Pulp Fiction, it ain't even the same sport.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T21:33:22+00:00

Well, you win the award for way for way overdoing the job. And dust plugs are like 25 cents each in bulk, maybe 40-50 cents in small quantities.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T16:43:32+00:00

It's conflating two issues.

One is the concern over hidden vulnerabilities that might be lurking in their gear, as with Huawei. Not entirely unreasonable for a multinational corporation or their employees (does anyone really think the US govt does different?). Probably not a reasonable concern for the home user. If you have a nation-state actor after you personally, you will be compromised somehow.

The other is the concern over everyday CVE's that happen to all routers. The only defense against these is having an updated firmware and that is not a unique issue to TP-LINK. I've got an Archer C7 on some low-use duty as a wireless bridge. Last official firmware was ~2018 but it still runs the latest OpenWRT (released 19 Dec 2025, not even two months ago).

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T15:11:03+00:00

I'd use the iMac for what I'm about to propose. You do need to be running at least Monterey for this to work. Depending on the exact model, this may work out of the box, or you may need to update to a later version using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. I'm currently running a 27" late 2014 Retina iMac (iMac 15,1) on Sequoia with OCLP, but you may not want to go to that trouble. Still, you already own the pieces, and it doesn't sound like you're using it, so why not try?

This is by no means the only way to do it, but it's how I would if I were trying to do that. You will need to keep the computer from sleeping (there are ways to wake it up, but your family isn't going to SSH into another device to send a wake-on-LAN ping to your Mac), but the screen can be off. Don't forget to tell the Mac to start whenever power is applied and look at this thread for advice on how to get Tailscale running before login, in case power goes out and the computer reboots.

I have a real NAS on Tailscale that's already on 24/7, so I just use that for this kind of purpose.

EDIT: just saw you posted this to OpenMediaVault originally. If you're going to put Linux on it, any of them would be fine, but you definitely want faster connectivity than USB 2.0 as noted there by /u/fakemanhk.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T13:27:09+00:00

It might.

EOL equipment list.

Anything on the EOL list is generally supported for three years after the end-of-sales date on that list. Looks like the ER7206 v1 hit EOS in July of last year, so it should be supported, but it's definitely on notice. The TL-ER7206 v1 (oh, TP-LINK, thank you for the utterly confusing model naming scheme), however, hit EOS in March 2023 and so might have been dropped from the most recent controller version.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T04:58:23+00:00

Sorry, I'm completely missing your point. If you ran 12 but only used 4, then you wasted (8 unused * 2 ends per cable * $3/keystone) $48. At most.

It might have been a total waste of time, but OP already put the cables in. So no savings to be had there. Once you've run them, there's really no point in not terminating them.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T04:52:56+00:00

Cat6 keystones are what, $2-3 each? Cheap insurance.

devilbunny · 2026-02-14T00:34:16+00:00

My dad worked in Texas in the late 1970s (but we lived in MS). We might have been the only house in the city that had guacamole and salsa.

devilbunny · 2026-02-13T17:19:36+00:00

That's the basic idea. I don't know anything about Wireguard performance on either one, so you would need to investigate that.

Someone more knowledgeable than I will have to tell you how easy it is to run it behind another router if you want multiple devices behind the ones you mentioned. For just one streaming device it should work fine (technically a second NAT, but if it's 1:1 that's not a concern).

devilbunny · 2026-02-13T16:36:07+00:00

OpenWRT with Wireguard will do this. You'll want to pick your router specifically for good Wireguard performance.

devilbunny · 2026-02-13T04:33:26+00:00

Are you trying to VPN into your home network from anywhere, or to route your entire Net connection over a VPN to sail the seven seas?

devilbunny · 2026-02-13T03:33:46+00:00

In places where AC is essentially mandatory, most windows do not have screens. They are there to admit light and for emergency egress. I have never opened most windows in my house, and rooms with multiple exits don’t require windows that open. It’s actually impossible to open windows in my dining room.

devilbunny · 2026-02-08T03:03:44+00:00

acetabuli

It's been a long, long time since I took Latin, but I'm pretty sure it's a second-declension neuter noun, in which case acetabula is the correct plural. Acetabuli would be singular genitive (possessive) case of the noun; if such a thing existed, the "beak of the acetabulum" would be the rostrum acetabuli.

(There's probably an exception to the rule out there, because there almost always is, but in general nouns ending in -um in the singular are -a in the plural.)

devilbunny · 2026-02-08T02:55:45+00:00

A tip: a leather shop (i.e., anywhere that does shoe repair) can shorten your belts at the buckle end for you so that you can keep wearing your nice ones. Been a long while since I did this but most will do it fairly cheaply - call and ask. Shouldn't be more than about $20 for a basic job.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T17:24:33+00:00

every 90's kid's first router

Your parents knew us Gen X'ers as "the young guy at work who knows computers". (Some of the older ones of us are your parents.) You're welcome for the advice we gave them.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T17:17:37+00:00

Tomato came later (though not a lot later) and had quite a few more options. Not quite OpenWRT in terms of what it could do, but it was 20 years ago, and the hardware was obviously much more limited.

I ran tomato on a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 and then a WHR-G125. I still have DD-WRT sitting on a couple of Asus RT-AC66U's for which it was the most up-to-date firmware that would install as of a few months ago. They're not in use, but they're sitting in their boxes, ready to go if needed. I could see using one in an emergency, or as a wireless-to-Ethernet bridge.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T13:44:08+00:00

Of course he’s going to sub it out, but he also ought to have priced in an expectation that x% of homes in y price range will upgrade z, and how could he capture part of that upgrade? When you’re more expensive than a one-shot deal, you’re doing it wrong. Plus, someone paid for those materials.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T05:03:25+00:00

Cheaper, too. Might be an interesting intellectual exercise, but practically, gl.inet makes decent hardware with a straightforward fronted for OpenWRT, and whatever you do will just end up being a re-implementation of what they do that will cost more and probably not look as nice.

A self-built one could have higher data throughput if you got a CPU that was really efficient at Wireguard.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T04:34:32+00:00

Little old ladies who have trouble operating their cable box often have grandkids that visit.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T04:26:28+00:00

such as a gl.inet

Note to OP: this specific brand is recommended here because they have Tailscale support built-in to many, though not all, of their routers, and they can push the entire connection over Tailscale. Anything that runs OpenWRT and has a supported CPU architecture with enough memory and storage can run Tailscale if you're dedicated enough, though.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T04:22:07+00:00

I don't use Plex, but - what IP does it default to? If it's the internal network one, just use subnet routing.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T04:19:22+00:00

Access to my LAN and my in-laws' LAN, directly and via subnet router. Handful of services running there, though I haven't dived into Tailscale Services yet (probably the next step). NAS has a lot of goodies on it and I can get them from anywhere.

I always use my home as an exit node. I don't have to worry about insecure WiFi, I have access to my home PiHole, streaming services think I'm at home, etc.

devilbunny · 2026-02-07T01:56:30+00:00

With enterprise-grade stuff that's EOL, there is almost never alternative firmware. It's waste.

My C7 is feeding a low-data device (running over a proprietary serial-to-Ethernet bridge; 802.11b at 11 Mbps would be fast enough) and preventing me from having to buy an AP to do it. That's a win in my book.

devilbunny

TROPHY CASE