I once bought a router to use for my internet when I moved into my new house just to find out that it “wasn’t compatible” with Verizon’s service. I still have it (because I’m terrible about returning things). Is there any point in keeping it? Is there anything fun or interesting that I could do with it?

  • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneEnglish
    13·
    2 years ago

    “Not Compatible” usually just means “We’re extracting a monthly fee from you to use out provided router”. Most likely, if you were to poke around, you could turn your ISP router/modem into a dumb modem and disable the inbuilt router, then connect your (better) wifi router to that.

  • directhex@kbin.social
    10·
    2 years ago

    Official guidance from Verizon is you can use your own router as a router, by setting your Verizon router as a modem only, then connecting it to the WAN port on your router. See e.g. https://kb.netgear.com/31100/How-do-I-set-up-my-Orbi-system-to-work-with-Fios

    Unofficially, it’s fine. You can just use your router. The modem is in the white box on the wall (the ONT) with fibre on one end and ethernet on the other. I’ve been running my router directly to the ONT for 3 years without issue. It just works fine.

  • CorrodedCranium@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
    8·
    2 years ago

    You could look into flashing a different firmware like DD-Wrt or Fresh Tomato. I use my second router to connect everything at my desk

  • hamster@kbin.social
    7·
    2 years ago

    It probably is compatible with your service. If you buy your own modem then you can use that router. You’ll avoid the monthly fee.

  • mershed_perderders@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    is it a wireless router? You could turn it into an access point and extend your wifi.

    make it a separate, unconnected and open router to troll your neighbors/wardrivers

  • Thomasnotused@kbin.social
    5·
    2 years ago

    If you have anywhere in your home with poor Wi-Fi signal, you could set up the router in bridge mode to effectively act as a range extender. Just make sure to disable DHCP on the 2nd router or it will wreak havoc!

      • poVoq@slrpnk.net
        4·
        2 years ago

        Best is actually to connect the two with a cable, otherwise you lose a lot of bandwidth.

        • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOP
          1·
          2 years ago

          I hope it’s not too terrible, purely over wifi. Maybe when my son gets older and wants to play games on his own computer, I’ll pipe a line over to the other side of the house for him. I don’t think his sister is going to care enough about computers to want a direct line to the internet, but if she does then I’ll do it for her too.

      • Billy_Gnosis@lemmy.world
        21·
        2 years ago

        I did this with my old router and as others have said it effectively cuts throughput in half. Depending on your usage though it might not be a big deal. I only connected mine so I could get a signal in the front yard. It’s fine for surfing the web or watching YouTube

  • MrJizzard@kbin.social
    4·
    2 years ago

    When I upgraded to a mesh system a while back, I turned my old router into a dedicated access point just for playing VR games wirelessly on my PC. Performance improved noticably once it didn’t have to compete with the regular house WiFi traffic.

    • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      I assume you had a hardline from the VR router to the central router? Otherwise wouldn’t the wireless communication between the VR router and the central router be in the same competition as the VR headset was before?

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 years ago

        Most/all of the data transfer in their case wouldn’t be hitting the regular router; the spare router would only be acting as a go-between from the PC to the VR headset

        • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOP
          2·
          2 years ago

          Oh, so you have a main router for internet traffic (wifi access for extended router and other devices) and another router extended from it that both your VR headset and PC connect to for VR-type data communication, still providing internet to the PC with about half the bandwidth?

          • Revan343@lemmy.ca
            2·
            2 years ago

            That’s how I’d set it up, yeah. Most VR games are gonna be local, not needing a ton of internet bandwidth

  • ParkingPsychology@kbin.social
    3·
    2 years ago

    I run double firewalls.

    I just don’t fully trust the ISP router, so I disabled the wifi and hooked it up to my own router. If the ISP router gets hacked, my internal network doesn’t get exposed.

    Port forwarding is a bit harder, but you probably aren’t even doing that at all (and it still works anyway, it’s just an extra step).

    • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOP
      2·
      2 years ago

      That’s an interesting idea. How do you access the router connected to the ISP to setup port forwarding to your second router? If it’s too complicated to type out here, I’ll understand.

      • digitallyfree@kbin.social
        3·
        2 years ago

        The easiest way would be to just bridge the ISP router if it supports that feature. To connect back to the ISP router’s webui you can setup outbound NAT on your second router (generally only available on enterprise gear). Don’t double NAT unless there’s no other option.

        If you can bridge, the sky’s the limit in terms of what gear you can have on the backend. My bridged modem is directly connected to a L3 switch which links to my Proxmox cluster, and my Opnsense router exists virtually in the cluster and can be migrated freely between the machines.

        • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOP
          1·
          2 years ago

          Your setup sounds very interesting to me. If I wasn’t so obsessed with writing code, I would have been deep into hardware. I imagine that it will become a hobby of mine when I hit my midlife crisis. I’ll be buying up all kinds of hardware, quiting my job, and connecting everything to everything.

          • digitallyfree@kbin.social
            2·
            2 years ago

            Homelabbing is an amazing hobby if you’re into this stuff, and you can go as far down the rabbit hole as you like :)

            My lab also supports my coding endeavors since I can deploy VMs, run a local Git server, and so forth. Most of my development is done in a SPICE VDI on Proxmox.

  • slowd0wn@kbin.social
    3·
    2 years ago

    Custom firmware like tomato or ddwrt can be fun to just play around with and learn more about networking. I used my old router temporarily as both a wifi repeater and as a wifi receiver using custom firmware. I didn’t need it for any particular function, but it was fun to experiment with

  • alex_02@fedia.io
    2·
    2 years ago

    You could probably turn it into an extended access point or something like that. You could also set it up to be used in like let’s say a lab or something like that. If possible, check what router it is and see if you can put OpenWrt or something like that on it.

    If not, collecting dust in a box isn’t a bad idea either, just if you decide to take it out again to clean it thoroughly.

  • finn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Might be able to get a few bucks for it on craigslist or fb if it’s not too old

      • finn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Mesh/range extenders really suck terribly, and that cannot be overstated. If you do any streaming or gaming or video calls, don’t do that on mesh APs or range extenders. Especially if you live near other people.

        • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOPEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          My kids would be the ones benefiting from the range extender and they’d only be watching YouTubeKids on their tablets. I don’t think they’d notice any issues with latency assuming that the buffer is able to load faster than the videos play. Thoughts?

          • finn@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            I can’t provide guarantees without datasheets, floor plans, etc. Not practical on Lemmy lol. Doesn’t hurt you to try though. If that doesn’t pan out, there are plenty of DIY videos on running cable, it’s cheap and easy.

            • livingcoder@lemmy.austinwadeheller.comOPEnglish
              1·
              2 years ago

              I’m legit scared to put holes in my walls; I’m afraid that I’ll make a hole, realize that I can’t use the hole (blocked, pipes in the way, etc.), and now I have a hole in my wall. I’m far more likely to pay someone else to do it - but I will at least watch a video on the topic, just to see if maybe it’s easier than I think it is.

        • waterbottleonashelf@kbin.social
          1·
          2 years ago

          Why is this? I got some free with my ISP and just have them set up so i can manually plug things like my TV or Xbox in and not have them using their wifi.

  • NomadJones@kbin.social
    53·
    2 years ago

    If you’re not going to hook it up to the internet (bridging, access point, etc.), name it something funny or provocative for the neighbors.

    For example, I live in a college student neighborhood with a lot of Chinese students. I have an old router that I’m going to use the network name 六四屠殺 which is Chinese for the June Fourth Massacre (the Tiananmen Square Massacre). It’s a term banned on the Chinese internet.