Early 2000s Linksys Wi-Fi Gear

Taking a look at some early 2000s Linksys routers, including the famous Linksys WRT54G. We'll setup a wireless-b wi-fi network and flash DD-WRT onto the WRT54G.
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

[@Jacobhopkins117]

That Windows XP wireless dialog makes me full of so much nostalgia, and frustration, from the hassle that wireless was back in these days.

[@juliet0001]

i love the focus on networking and enterprise gear compared to other retro computing channels

[@clabretro]

Thanks!

[@betaradish9968]

To be fair there is probably some of this gear floating around a warehouse somewhere still doing its job.

[@systemchris]

especially as lots of rero devices also have networking, so can be used for mixing with them period accurate

[@user-dz3sq9bf6s]

@@clabretroback in the day Linksys had a lot of good stuff and to this day I still use Linksys very good routers I have 2 ac routers that are very reliable and them are the same setup page 10:51 they still used in the WiFi N and some ac stuff when Wi-Fi 5 1st came out

[@insainllama]

The Motorola surfboard modems and these routers were like the default cable networking setup for the 2000s.

[@MrKrezol]

I had one of those too

[@koobydotnet]

Absolutely! Massive nostalgia.

[@kbhasi]

Yep!! Your comment gave me a flashback to Singapore in 2005, when StarHub provided both a Motorola Surfboard SB5100 and Linksys WRT54G to their home Internet subscribers, including my family. Wi-Fi (or Wireless LAN as it was called back then) was such new technology for us that I was just blown away at not only not having to run a long Ethernet cable from the modem to the bed when I wanted to use my dad's laptop there, but also for more than one computer in the same house to be connected to the Internet at the same time.

[@DobuDobuDobuDot]

@@kbhasi In Belgium our cable provider had the same setup except they didn't like routers because they charged per IP-address so we got the WAP54G (access point). I also remember you had to release the ip from the modem when you wanted to connect another PC because the lease time was set on an hourly clock and the IP was given to only 1 MAC-address. Placing a router behind the modem solved that whole "1 IP" issue of course.

[@coolsnake1134]

Definitely, in the early/ mid 2000s. I think the surfboard was the only cable modem that Comcast provided because that was also before the copper phone lines were done away with. It did not need the phone ATA adapters, that and also the massive silver Motorola or scientific Atlantica cable boxes that always seem to have the most ungodly noisy hard drives for the DVRs

[@styastya2227]

The neighbor having a wireless B router is crazy

[@eDoc2020]

Wireless B compatible to be more accurate. Nearly every N router comes fully compatible with B, and even on more modern equipment B compatibility isn't rare at all.

[@vrdrivesolutions3695]

How do you know it is 802.11b? WPA2 is kind of outdated though

[@resneptacle]

Because the network card was only able to understand 802.11b, if it was strictly g/n, it wouldn't show up. Of course, this doesn't mean the router is b only, but at least has b backwards compatibility turned on

[@micahnightwolf]

My dad had a whole bunch of Linksys stuff floating around the house back in the day. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by how good they looked... like expensive glowing LEGO bricks.

[@mayshack]

I became acquainted with dd-wrt when I visited my grandmother over the summer circa 2004 and there was no internet available at her house. There was, however, a doctor's office nearby with an unsecured guest network. The wifi signal was so weak, my laptop wouldn't detect it, so I rigged up the WRT54G flashed with dd-wrt to operate as a wireless repeater at the closest end of the house.

[@jsteezy80]

I did something similar in 2004. I lived in a high-rise that had free Internet on the roof (3 floors up). I still have a few of those routers somewhere in my computer stuff

[@clabretro]

Haha awesome.

[@jsteezy80]

I used to do computer work as well so I have like three or four of them when I would upgrade routers. I also have the bigger antennas. I was repeating a pretty weak signal but it was enough to get online and play PokerStars and FF online

[@renakunisaki]

I did the same as a broke college student. Had the router sitting in a metal bowl to slightly boost the signal (about 3dB). Used to load KZbin videos, pause them, come back later when they'd fully buffered (back before it refused to do that) and watch.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

Unsecured networks and WEP encrypted ones that could be cracked in a few seconds, those were the days.

[@Megatog615]

WRT54G's firmware served as the basis for so many other routers.

[@adamsavard535]

There's something special about new PCI cards. Even for something so basic, I still feel that dopamine hit for "new hardware".

[@clabretro]

agreed!

[@vewo234]

@neighbor‘s network: Up to 802.11n a lot of wireless APs/routers worked in b/g/n compatible mode. So it might very well be an n-standard network which is still backwards compatible to b-standard. Even some 802.11ac APs are set to a/b/g/n/ac compatibility by default.

[@AgentOffice]

I still use b

[@SamForbis]

Back when I was in middle school (late 2000s) I had acquired a couple of stackable Linksys devices from the thrift store, including a wired router and wireless G access point. My parents let me maintain the home network and that's how I learned most of my networking knowledge. Those devices were so cool.

[@clabretro]

best way to learn, by doing!

[@gamingsucks5349]

I only remember the 2010s

[@javajav3004]

u in IT?

[@JCLoony]

Heh, took two down to a resort that charged for wifi per device. One was setup as a bridge like shown here and was signed into the resort wifi. The second was setup as a normal access point. The group of us in adjacent rooms got wifi on all devices for the price of one.

[@clabretro]

ha awesome

[@Krozmar]

I loved WRT54G, with custom firmware you could also set the wattage of transmittion way higher then leagal limit in most part of the world.. kind of scary high actually as you could use it as a wifi jammer.. But I used it as you, as bridge, so I could connect my old Xbox and other none wifi units to it with ethernet cable. It was really fun to play around with :)

[@Zach_Miller]

The most underrated feature was the stackability. I had three units stacked and would drill out larger vent holes, mount 120mm fans to the top and bottom of the stack and solder power to the 12v off the board. These things did run pretty toasty when you had more than one

[@stevenchristenson2428]

I remember having to restart mine back in the day all the damn time. It would overheat constantly, but I do live in arizona and at the time lived somewhere that only had a swamp cooler. This was like 2003 or so.

[@renakunisaki]

I had one with a fan soldered in and zip-tied over a large hole cut in the top... 😆

[@TrentonGauthier]

Kinda surprised this didn't become a standard. Like a Home or SMB version of actual rack equipment. I could have seen NAS and other third party equipment following the same form factor.

[@seshpenguin]

Oh man, I have so many memories of the 54G! Flashing DD-WRT was definitely one of my first experiences with modding hardware with open firmware.

[@clabretro]

Same!

[@Neodestro]

@@clabretro same

[@gmitchellfamily]

Same. Made a world of difference reliability wise. I gave the router away to someone else and they used it for years afterward, never a complaint.

[@heatedpoolandbar]

When those started showing up at thrift stores for around less than 10 dollars, I would always pick up the ones that were DD-WRT compatible and "liberate" them. I was running a pair of them with the second one acting as a range extending AP until around 2014 or 2015. I kept a third one around as a wireless bridge for cases where I needed to install Debian on something where the wireless drivers weren't shipped with the installer.

[@doalwa]

This video taught me that Nostalgia for ancient plastic routers is indeed a thing 😅

[@clabretro]

oh yes

[@micaelsilva]

Still have a WRT54GL, I bought used many time ago, before anything vintage begins to be crazy expensive. The TNC antenna, 12V DC very useful to use outdoors in Wi-Fi parties, and the custom firmware, lot of good things to remember of Later in life I met someone who works in Linksys at time, they liked the product as much as the costumers

[@clabretro]

Interesting about the Linksys employee. There always seems to be a correlation between the employees liking what they're creating and a good product.

[@CheapSushi]

These were definitely iconic with the consistent color scheme and stacking. I love when products feels like part of the same "family". It's so awesome to know there's other folks out there that appreciate stuff like this. XD

[@JamesBos]

“For years”, more like over a decade now! I remember exploiting the GPIO on these things to trigger relays in my apartment before Arduino’s were really a thing. How I never burnt anything down is beyond me 😂

[@clabretro]

Haha I keep hearing about the GPIO shenanigans, but I've never tried it. Might have to now.

[@Ronnocbot]

I remember playing with DDWRT on these old routers when I was in high school. In 2013/14, all I could get was essentially e-waste, but it worked out well! Was able to set up multiple bridges and extend my parents' network. Fun times...miss being 16 and playing with this stuff after school. Blowing my mind that this was 10 years ago as I'm about to turn 26 next week 🥺

[@keithnsearle7393]

A very happy early birthday wishes to you.

[@Ronnocbot]

@@keithnsearle7393 thank you very much!! That is very nice of you :)

[@TravisNewton1]

This brings back so many memories of high school! We had a converted shed that I used as my tech cave since it had electricity and A/C. The only thing it didn't have was Internet. I had a couple of these Linksys WRT54Gs and so I flashed them with DD-WRT and put one in my bedroom that was on the side of the house with the shed and I put the other in the shed. I used them to form a wireless bridge to get Ethernet access in my tech cave for all my old PCs. Worked great!

[@clabretro]

perfect use case!

[@BabyMachine]

Damn, this brought me back... i remember doing this exact thing back in like freshmen year of high school? lmao I remember getting that little wifi dongle to work with my Xbox 360 after doing some tweaks, too. I miss those days!

[@SOF006]

I remember flashing DD-WRT to a Netgear R6300 and doing exactly what you did to get a wired network for my devices. Saved me purchasing a wireless adapter for each device I owned at the time.

[@bluein_]

Working on a LAN party right now where the theme is early to mid '00s, and couldnt do it without picking up one of these for everyone to connect to! We got thinkpads, acer travelmate 8004s, and a bunch of cool desktops connecting to these no problem and it's a blast testing it out so far. Can't wait to see everyone having fun on them. We even got a WoW server running on a Poweredge 2850!

[@clabretro]

Nice!!

[@coolsnake1134]

That sounds pretty neat, if I did a themed land party I would probably do a early 2010's theme because for me and my group of friends that time was the best, multiple spaceheater gpus and a spaghetti mess of temporary wires coming out of an electrical panel because those computers were so power-hungry I would trip even the kitchen counter circuits in my parents house

[@bluein_]

@@coolsnake1134 That exact power hassle is one of the reasons why we limited to that era lmao We grew up on these era of games and there's a certain feeling you just can't get any other way. We also plan to play some older titles

[@oldschooldude8370]

​​​​@@bluein_Doom, quake, q2, duke3d, blood & sw were the older titles I pray.

[@murphyseanm]

I had the cable modem and the thin WRT54B as my first set up in my apartment. I eventually added the WRT54G and then turned off the wireless on the B model and used it as an extra wired switch. That lasted until I got my Town home and set up a wireless N router and used the WRT54G with DDWRT to connect for downstairs ethernet. That lasted YEARS until the N router died and replaced with AC router, still using the G router downstairs. Moving to my current home had me upgrade to way better cable internet and installing Ubiquiti network gear and finally retiring the poor WRT.

[@clabretro]

they were definitely workhorses!

[@marcinepicki1719]

Ah I had Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, it was basically a clone of some Linksys router. Loved it, I still keep it in my storage!

[@clabretro]

those were good too!

[@marcinepicki1719]

​@@clabretrowhen I was looking for wifi solution for my house ~3 years ago I decided to buy ASUS routers - probably not the most obvious choice, but I love the fact that they make their firmware open source (with some exceptions, like mesh implementation), and they support Asuswrt-Merlin project delivering "community" firmware to their routers :)

[@questionablecommands9423]

Literally only clicked in because I missed how these units stacked like you had your own mini home lab. I had a cable modem + router + WAP setup. R.I.P. 2004 Linksys.

[@jjjacer]

@4:33 usually uplink ports on older switches/hubs/routers would be bonded to the last port so you could use one or the other and the uplink port was crossover vs standard, later on with Auto MDI-X this was no longer needed.

[@clabretro]

oh interesting, didn't know about that. thank you!

[@OldLordSpeedy]

Yeah, an extra 2-port *normal* *uplink* (use only *one* at the same time!) was cheaper as an extra switch if you have free space. A port costs 3 cent these times, an extra switch 10 cent (with extra fault for the normal user!), and was easy to handle if you known this then the plastic writing in same colours of the background is hilarious. Auto-Uplink/Auto-MDI-X can be failed these times too and so do you need special cables all the times. So are extra 2-port devices was a big helper at these old times. 😂

[@alexdhall]

Yes and the uplink port required the use of a crossover Ethernet cable….I think. Such things are moot with auto-negotiation/Auto MDI-X….

[@OldLordSpeedy]

@@alexdhall No. If do you have an extra uplink-port do you need a normal 1:1 patch cable, the crossing is built-in in the port. Do you use only a special crossover cable if the port is normal e.g. use switch only to all your 10 MBit / 100 MBit Hubs only. Do you need only one full switch inside the scenario - all other can be (cheaper) hubs. Today do you can use crossover cable till 100 MBit - all switches switching automatically.

[@HPad2]

12:43 Its just a 2.4GHz network. Not Wireless B. By default routers that support wireless N are also backwards compatible with Wireless B & G. The only time it is not is if you manually disabled it.

[@clabretro]

oh yeah, good point

[@TheErador]

I still use my 54G for this very purpose, wireless bridging is awesome for when you don't need much bandwidth and you don't want/can't run a wire

[@Jackpkmn]

My favorite thing about Wireless B was running a Lucent/ORiNOCO Silver card in a ISAPC-00 PC Card adapter. Wifi on ISA slots haha.

[@clabretro]

haha awesome

[@scottsmall9898]

I still use my 54g as a bridge and it just works. Never have problems so different for most of the newer stuff out nowadays.

[@bcupp15]

I was always curious what the head end hardware that served DOCIS is like. I always thought it would be cool to use some vintage cable modems and set them up in your home network. When I worked for a hotel they used to have a cable modem in every room that provided wifi using the hotels COAX network so I dont feel it would be too much of a stretch to home lab that.

[@clabretro]

I was wondering about that too, could be an interesting little research project to see if I could feed that modem something it could actually do something with.

[@freedomlinux]

In case it helps your searching, the "router" between an ISP's Ethernet and DOCSIS networks is called a CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System). The similar device for DSL providers is called a DSLAM.

[@klaernie]

Please setup an entire cable internet provider in your home! After all you already run your own tv station! Only a logical conclusion.

[@maxbroomfield5392]

Sounds like an awesome project for @TheSerialPort!

[@guruoo]

I've used a number of these with dd-wrt and couple of directional antennas as cheap, point-to-point network links.

[@cyronader]

20:35 ah that Fry's Electronics price sticker.....the nostalgia

[@d3xbot]

We used our Linksys cable modem with a WRT54G stacked on top for a good bit longer than we should've done, but man was it ever a reliable setup! Our ISP finally said "No more DOCSIS 1 kit, you gotta get on the DOCSIS 3.0 train!" so we picked up an Arris surfboard and it overheated within months. Then we got a good ol' Motorola surfboard and it's still kicking 7 years later.

[@clabretro]

ha cool!

[@d3xbot]

I forgot to mention - the colors of the front plate matched between the modem and router. They do lighten in sunlight, so that may be the culprit behind the color difference

[@John-McAfee]

I am proud of your channel's growth, hope you get a hundred thousand subscribers soon, my man. Highly underrated KZbin channel

[@clabretro]

thanks!

[@thisismossop]

Ha, for years I ran a WRT54G (with larger antenna) and a WRE54G as my home networking. Then I installed it in my mothers house and she used it until 2015/6. Great Kit. And talking about the DD-WRT software reminded me of the SoundBlaster Live 1024 cards that we used to run with EMU APS drivers. It gave our £30 sound cards the capabilities of the £300+ EMU Audio Production Studio cards. It also reminds me of unlocking CPU multipliers with a pencil, those were the days.

[@superduder]

Oh man. Ya a blast from the past. I loved DD-WRT. I had 4 of the 54Gs in my house sporting DD-WRT. The early 200s where such a time.

[@nicknorthcutt7680]

I remember my dad using these in our old home, brings back memories.

[@Everything817]

I loved how they stacked. I always had several of them running and they looked nice all stacked up in the cabinet.

[@tellyjoossens4186]

Still have a Linksys 54g stored in its original box. Nice idea using it to connect my retro pc's to it. Gonda make that a future project.

[@TheMrDrMs]

How could the WRT54G _NOT_ be a favorite. I remember flashing that way long ago. Thanks for making me feel old....

[@arizonapalms]

My first use-case for DD-WRT was getting a network in the garage of my childhood home. It was actually a Netgear router of some kind that I flashed with DD-WRT to repeat the network, and used the WAN port as one of the switchports. 15 years later I work with Fortinet, Cisco, Aruba, etc. for a living :P

[@clabretro]

I remember being blown away when I read about the client bridging DD-WRT could do, knew I had to flash it and try it out. Definitely kicked off a networking obsession as well haha. Great channel by the way! I'm subscribed on my personal YT account haha.

[@user-ky1jp7ev8b]

Brings back memories. I used to share my Dial Up internet to a second PC back in the late 1990s/early 2000s over wireless B with internet connection sharing and the older SMC Wireless b routers. We've come a long way since then haha. Those older WRT54G routers (the early revisions) had the wireless controlled by an actual removable card that you could take out and pop in your laptop of the same era. There were broadcom drivers for it online somewhere and you had a "free" wireless g upgrade for your laptop. I may or may have not done this haha. If you pop open the WRT54G you may notice the card is removable, if you have an old enough revision. ;)

[@clabretro]

oh wow, I didn't know that!

[@TribbleBot]

I'm still running a WRT-54G with DD-WRT between my cable modem and my gigabit switch, because when I set it up our service was "up to 100Mbps" so it was adequate. I'm replacing it with a pfSense router this weekend because it does gigabit and with a recent service upgrade our modem's now the bottleneck.

[@TradieTrev]

You're a man to our hearts, I'm still a big OpenWRT fan to this day because of the DD-WRT firmware.

[@psyolent.]

O M G. I just broke out my WRT54G for my Amiga for some stuff I am working on. I put DDWRT on it a million years ago, I have had two of them for years and years, love these things!

[@CapsLock33]

nice. I miss these units. The stacking feature was the coolest part of them.

[@the_kombinator]

That's right, hardwire everything! I did a full CAT 6 to my house 2 years ago. Sure it has wifi, but all my retro gear and WFH office is wired to drops.

[@vladimirfox5750]

oh man, the 54G. so many memories. I ran OpenWRT on a wrt3200acm for a really long time. But its not the same as the 54G.

[@Sama3L]

I had an WRT54GL running dd-wrt as well and it served all kinds of purposes. First it served as a backup when the internal WiFi of my parents router died and then for some years I used it as a bridge because I had issues with pretty much every wifi card I used to own, so I hooked up my pc to this guy and it worked flawlessly for many years until I finally hardwired everything.

[@djafk]

Back in the day, we used so many of those for wireless bridges using ddwrt. Those are rock solid.

[@RandomTechWZ]

So much nostalgia! I had one and flashed it with ddwrt, threw on some high-gain antennas and had some crazy range. Used the cable modem too. I was probably 14-15 at the time. My friend had the OG model that had tons more lights on it.

[@BangBangBang.]

5:20 the 2000s Halo Xbox LAN party setup where you dragged a heavy TV to your friend's house or the party house. There was a point where I drove around with a TV in my backseat of my car protected in a seat belt just in case somebody said LAN party. I wanted to be ready

[@StoianAtanasov]

Thank you for the memories, I did this with so many routers, not just linksys :)

[@Felix-ve9hs]

My employer has been using the exact same model for a year now, the model we had to use was from 2004 and it crashed all the time, so we had to power cycle it every half hour or so. I'm so glad I don't have to use these things ever again 😅

[@Felix-ve9hs]

And no, we were not allowed to flash OpenWRT on it, so we had to use it with a 2008 firmware - in *2022* !!! 🤮

[@clabretro]

yikes haha

[@kenopsiaexplorersjason]

I remember I had early linksys cable modem router and a separate access point they stacked too

[@gregutz4284]

This was a good time. Cracking WEP/ WPA was a great learning time for me.

[@fordonmekochgalenskaper5665]

Used lots of Linksys gears back in the days, I liked that they were so easy to stack, router and 2-3 switches had a small footprint and still lots of connections.

[@idiotwidowmaker8932]

I had this exact setup and remember going through that scary vxworks killer process and everything. What a throwback to a different time.

[@LarryKapp1]

I had a linksys 54g with ddwrt up on my tower for 8 years in client mode and it worked without a hitch to get internet from distant source . I powered it via the cat5 cable and had one of the antenna connectors plugged into an external flat antenna with good gain. My water proofing was simple and effective - it was a five quart plastic oil bottle with the bottom cut open and then just slid the router inside. I used a piece of wire through the oil bottle handle to hold it on the tower. I was always amazed that even during heavy rains and snowstorms and extreme cold the wifi signal came in no problem. The plastic oil bottle finally crumbled from sunlight so I just put it in a new one. But now I actually have my own internet so don't need to use it any longer.

[@thelegion_within]

nice to see a wrt54g, I was helping folks set those up back in 2006. brings back some memories

[@TheJonathanc82]

I remember using these to create wireless bridges between two family members’ houses that were across the street from each other back in the day. I loved doing that kind of stuff.

[@bradzilla8000]

such a walk down memory lane. Absolutely love your content.

[@RJmakes69]

Man the WRT54G is awesome, i still use one every day to work with my windows XP machine. I love that router!

[@xDownSetx]

I remember toiling away in that UI trying to get the most stable wifi settings. My WRT54G was quickly modified with an 80mm fan to keep it cool. My next step in router firmware was a Linksys E2500 running AdvancedTomato, the UI blew my mind coming from DD-WRT.

[@Baulder13]

Oh for sure. Tomato's UI was incredible. I wish it was as ubiquitous as DD-WRT is today.

[@clabretro]

Oh yeah I spent hours setting up DD-WRT back in the day. I briefly flashed Tomato on one years ago but never really used it. Maybe I'll give that another go just for fun.

[@CAMintmier]

I originally purchased a WRT54GL specifically for it's 3rd party firmware support. Ended up putting Tomato firmware on it, and it worked without issues. I only took it out of service to upgrade to use hardware that supported wifi N.

[@clabretro]

I tried tomato for awhile on one of mine back in the day. Wifi N was also the reason I eventually retired my original WRT54Gs.

[@randyriegel8553]

I had a couple WRT54-G back in the day. Even after upgrading I flashed them dd-wrt as a repeater for my garage. I didn't need high bandwidth out there.

[@estebaniturra9305]

Good memories! The WRT54G + ddwrt was really nice combo back in those years!

[@5argetech56]

I know people who were still using the Linksys WRT54G in 2020! I was one of them.. Oops! Now I use an Asus RT-AC65 and love the increased range and security. I also have connected a 1TB SATA SSD filled with movies and TV shows to the usb port on the router and enjoy a NAS on the cheap!

[@curtisscott9251]

802.11B also makes for a decent free guest network that offers minimal functionality without eating all your bandwidth.

[@duItra]

what a nostalgia trip seeing that router configuration page again. So many childhood memories of screwing around in there with no clue at all what I was doing. Good times. Great vid! Thanks for the memories :)

[@clabretro]

thanks for watching!

[@Martin_from_SC]

Brings back old memories... Had BEFSR41, WAP11, WRT54GS and also a switch of the same form factor. Loved the stacking form factor at the time. Had a little mini tower of them.

[@igeekone]

What a blast from the past!

[@dysfunctionalwombat]

Quite the trip down memory lane with this. When broadband first came to our area in 2008, we used a WRT54G running DD-WRT. It served good for years until it was replaced with a much more modern access point. Love this content, keep it up!

[@clabretro]

Thanks for watching!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Man, I used to drool over setups like this circa 2006-2010. At the time my home internet came via BT, and then a BT subsidiary called Plusnet. They both supplied their own router, which were apparently the same inside but had vastly different outsides. Anyway, the mythical router-bridge mode, to isolate just the ADSL modem portion, didn't work. They natively offered very few settings. I hated them. So anyway, by the time I moved out and had my own router (an Asus I picked to be "future proof" almost 10 years ago which still gets updates and is still plenty fast, so I think it's been alright!) fibre to the building was a thing and I only used the ADSL/VDSL port for like 6 months while it was getting installed in the street... I don't regret it, getting my internet in via an ethernet cable from the basement is great, but I still feel like I missed something of a golden era of home networking. Probably just because I lusted after it so much as a teen tho.

[@clabretro]

I remember being absolutely blown away by the amount of options DD-WRT or Tomato unlocked.

[@doctorwade927]

Great video! My company supplied internet and VOIP to 21 McDonalds restaurants. We ran Metro E to the stores and used Cisco routers and switches in each store office They wanted a custom wireless setup for their customers so we bought the 54Gs off of Ebay and flashed a custom load with DD-WRT that loaded a McDonalds splash screen and terms of service whenever a customer logged in (along with commercials). We ran POE from the switch and ran the ethernet run into the ceiling over the dining room. We mounted the wireless routers upside down and drilled holes in the ceiling tiles to poke the wireless antennae through. We tried using the PCI cards in warehouse situations but never had much luck connecting them to the network.

[@randomdude1053]

As a 22 year old College networking student and nerd, you earned yourself a new sub! I love these!

[@clabretro]

thank you!

[@sesl91]

oh man this definitely took me back! i would make bridges from the wrt54G and used it to get internet for my xbox and pc that didn't have wireless on it. eventually even used it to get internet in my parents shed

[@koobydotnet]

Yes! The WRT 54G was the last all-in-one Wi-Fi router that I used before transitioning to a Cisco Soho access point and eventually pfsense via ESXi. Massive nostalgia!

[@koobydotnet]

I had the longer antenna kit as well! Alright. I need to calm down lol.

[@Treffaut]

Oh man, that early WRT54-family stuff was KING. Thank you so much for revisiting the process. Quite a trip!

[@clabretro]

thanks for watching!

[@scottanderson2871]

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!! Gosh this was good times.

[@clabretro]

Thanks for watching!

[@markpriceful]

i worked in ISP tech support in the early 2000s and i keep thinking about customers who called in and called it "Linksky"

[@adamsavard535]

Working with the public is always fun. I had someone call in when I worked for a phone company and she asked about a "WeeWee" phone. She meant Huawei.

[@v-cape]

I absolutely loved my WRT54G, I ran Tomato on mine. Thanks for the memories!

[@clabretro]

Thanks for watching!

[@agy234]

This video unlocked so many memories!

[@mtnsolutions]

Got my CCNA in March this year. Still remember the linksys gear I bought for my family for Christmas when I was in 9th grade. This brought back memories and reminded me of humble origins. Thanks

[@clabretro]

Congrats! Thanks for watching.

[@mtnsolutions]

@@clabretro I look forward to seeing more

[@radical_ans]

I use one of these to this day as a wired switch in a lab setup for work.

[@JTheTsunami]

My first wireless network! Picked up the router and usb wifi adapter when I worked at Best Buy at the time.

[@getyerspn]

Wow that takes me back ... I had a wrt54g running ddwrt ... Many years later I got a WRT1900ACS... Oh dear I was so disappointed it was the cause of so many arguments about why the internet access was down again .... I tend to use Cisco aironet AP's now where speed isn't a priority as they're dirt cheap second hand from company closures.

[@aelsi1337]

loved these routers

[@xantam23]

I still use a WRT54GL to connect my bedroom TV to my Wi-Fi 6 Router. Still usable after all these years using dd-wrt.

[@linuxcoder3249]

I loved this style that they had

[@XtrAMassivE]

This was very cool, I never played with the dd-wrt stuff but I've seen it everywhere so it's nice to know how it worked.

[@xylexrayne8576]

This video is a Gut punch of nostalgia of the best kind! My late teen/early adult years 2003-2008 was filled with so many of these Linksys routers. Everything you are doing is shit I did so... many times... in that era.

[@clabretro]

thanks for watching!

[@mog068]

I've still got a couple of those WRT54Gs which were my workhorses back in the day. One of them already has some version of DD-WRT. Most recently used in ~2019 for providing WiFi range from a digital mixing board from about 100 feet to my iPad on the stage so I could soundcheck bands from there. One of my wall-warts died along the way.

[@ConnerWithAnE_]

I check this channel daily for videos lol. Great work as always, keep the content coming!

[@clabretro]

ha thank you! always more projects on the way.

[@johnackley3982]

I loved that router and also had had stack for extra ports

[@brianmaier7529]

I had one of these wireless routers in the early 2000s. I also had a Linksys 10 port switch connected to it. I also swapped out the stock antenna for a long pair of hi gain versions that Linsys sold separately.

[@eDoc2020]

When I started working where I work now I noticed the classic unsecured "linksys" SSID. There was an old WAP54G (the AP version of the WRT54G) on the shelf hooked up to our network. I installed a new Unifi U6-Pro to replace it in March 2023. It's one thing to still be using a WRT54G but the lack of security was something else. At home I have a US Robotics version (same chipset series) on DD-wrt acting as a client bridge for our printer where it works quite well.

[@clabretro]

funny to hear how many businesses have these things still chugging along

[@eDoc2020]

@@clabretro The real funny thing is it was _faster_ than a direct Wi-Fi connection to the ISP provided router which was theoretically 5 times faster. It's not super _surprising_ considering the Linksys was 6ft away from where I was testing but ~50 feet and one wooden wall shouldn't have slowed MI424WR all the way down to 6Mbps.