My favorite use for an old router? Turning it into a basic Ethernet switch.The thing is ...that's super boring.
Pretty much everyone does that.So what if you have an old router, nothing you particularly need, and you want to have some fun (and perhaps get something useful out of it)? Let's think outside the box for a second.The first weird thing you can do with an old router is to have it listen to your wireless thermometer.
No, I'm not joking.Make it eavesdrop on your wireless thermometer Congratulations, you just turned your router into a radio station Close I admit the whole thing is pretty baffling when you just throw it out there with no explanation, but trust me, you have your router eavesdrop on a wireless thermometer, weather station, and similar sensors.For context, a lot of cheap gear like that doesn't actually use Wi-Fi at all, and they just broadcast tiny packets of data over unlicensed radio bands, commonly around 433MHz.
If your old router has a USB port and can run OpenWrt, you can plug in an inexpensive RTL-SDR dongle, install software like rtl_433, and suddenly your router is tracking temperature, humidity, and whatever other sensors you have in your house.There's quite a lot you can do with this, actually.You can log your readings and send them elsewhere on the network or feed them into something like Home Assistant, even.
The router isn't even doing a router-type job anymore in this scenario; it's basically an always-on radio, really.Related Don't toss your old router: 5 practical ways to reuse it You'll regret throwing out that old router! Posts 4 By Sydney Butler Give your house its own satellite-synchronized clock Yes, your router can take time directly from GPS If turning your router into a makeshift radio receiver didn't phase you, maybe this one will.You can make the router tell time by using satellites.
With OpenWrt, a compatible USB GPS receiver, and the right packages, the router can read timing data from GPS and use it to keep its own clock synchronized.This lets it act as an NTP server for the rest of your network, so your PCs and everything else can just ask the router what time it is instead of relying on the internet.So ...
is this in any way necessary? Nope, but that's what makes it fun.You can have your very own network clock tower.It's weird and it's borderline useless, but it's the kind of project you can have fun with while you work on it.
Create a Wi-Fi network that leads to absolutely nowhere Just because you can, basically Here's another gloriously pointless idea (that might actually have some point to it after all, but only if you think deep).You can create a Wi-Fi network that has zero internet access, because who's going to stop you? And then have that network serve a local page and do nothing else.With OpenWrt and a captive portal package like openNDS, anyone who joins that network can be redirected to a page hosted right there on the router.
This means no cloud service, no web hosting, and no outside connection whatsoever.The way to make this useful can be pretty fun.Think of stuff like a party guestbook or a household notice board, or even a local wiki to be used at work.
Make USB devices appear in another room Your router can basically teleport a USB port If your old router has a USB port, that automatically makes it way more useful for all sorts of tasks.One oddball of a use case that I'm pretty sure isn't widely known is that you can use this to make a USB device appear somewhere else on your network.Using OpenWrt and USB/IP, your router can host a USB device and let another computer access it over the network as though it was plugged in locally.
Simply put, the router can become a weird, convoluted, and elaborate USB extension cable that happens to run through your network.What do you connect to this "teleporting" USB port? I'd say useful stuff is best, such as a printer, scanner, USB serial adapter, or some other low-bandwidth gadget.Plug a webcam into it and make the router watch a room Because apparently routers can become cameras now Connecting webcams and routers, what could go wrong? Yes, this is indeed a thing you can actually do.
Just plug a compatible webcam into your old router and turn the whole thing into a basic network camera.With OpenWrt, the right USB video drivers, and software like mjpg-streamer, the router can serve the webcam feed across your local network without needing a full PC to babysit it.Mind you, mjpg-streamer hasn't been updated for years, so do your due diligence before trying it.
I wouldn't want to overstate how useful this is, though.It's not going to become a full-fledged security camera, but you can do something silly, like pointing it at your pet's favorite spot, and use it as a live feed of that little corner of the house.Turn its useless buttons and blinking lights into actual controls That WPS button doesn't have to remain a WPS button Some router buttons are best avoided, but if you're not really using this router as a regular router, you might as well have fun with it.
With OpenWrt, you can reassign some of those buttons and LEDs to stuff that's actually useful.For instance, a WPS button could trigger a script or toggle guest Wi-Fi on or off.Your router can do a lot more than you think (the question is do you want it to) As you can see based on the above, there's a lot a router can actually do.
And I'm not going to lie to you: pretty much none of these things are strictly .But I promised you we'd look into some bizarre options, and I hope that I delivered on that end, no matter if they're useful or not.Related Don't trash your old router: Turn it into a wired workhorse instead Wi-Fi standards moved on, but your old router can still do something useful Posts By Monica J.
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