Let's bring an old router back to life

(or just spruce it up a little)

Why?

• It can still serve as your router (possibly better than now)
• Don't buy a new one (save money and e-waste)
• Be more involved in its life (security)
• Learn something along the way
• Deploy something new and useful on it

Can you?

• Maybe, depends on
  • Router hardware
  • How much you want it

How?

Replace its firmware with a modern one

Bring in the patient

TP-Link TL-WR841N

Bring in the patient

TP-Link TL-WR841N

What's inside

• Hw version released around 2014

• 4 Port 100/10 Switch

• 1 Port 100/10 Wan Interface

• 4 MB Flash

• 32 MB Ram

This is going to be tough

• Only old builds are available
• New builds not built but possible
• Standard functionality doesn't fit in available memory

Let's make our own build

What's needed:

• A Linux build environment (Docker will suffice)
• A tftp server (tftpd64 for Windows)
• Optional (might not need it):
  • USB UART
  • Soldering skillz

Firmware upload procedure for TL-WR841N

• Set tftp server address to 192.168.0.66
• Host the firmware on tftp as wr841nv9_tp_recovery.bin
• Connect routers WAN port to the network with your tftp server

More trouble

Menuconfig

Great success!