SerpApi.Org
There's a pretty good chance you have some old piece of networking equipment somewhere, whether it be an old switch, router, or firewall. Discarding it is one option, but it's the least economical. The gear is slower than what replaced it, the software is out of date, and the whole point was to upgrade, so why hold onto the old stuff at all? It's a reasonable instinct, but it skips over a more useful question: what else could this do? Because in most cases, the answer is quite a lot.
Your old gear probably still works fine
Being replaced doesn't mean it's broken
The most important thing to understand about your old router or switch is that it almost certainly isn't broken. It was replaced, which is a very different circumstance. Consumer networking hardware is built to run continuously for years, and most of it does exactly that, and the reason it got swapped out was likely a desire for faster speeds, better coverage, or newer features. That means what you have sitting in a box is a working piece of networking hardware, and working hardware has its uses.
The most straightforward option is repurposing a router as a dedicated wireless access point. If your current setup leaves dead zones in certain parts of your home, like in a basement or detached garage, an old router can fill those gaps without adding to your equipment budget. Many modern routers include an access point mode right in their stock settings, meaning the configuration is a matter of a few menu changes rather than anything technically demanding.
Older routers may also support third-party firmware like DD-WRT or OpenWrt, which could turn it into a VPN endpoint, network monitor, or even the backbone of an isolated network segment dedicated to home-labbing. Switches are a bit more straightforward; if it's a really old switch that only supports 100Mbps speeds or maybe only has a couple of Gigabit ports is still useful for devices in a home lab that don't require high-speed Ethernet.
Someone else definitely wants it
One man's trash...
If repurposing isn't appealing, the secondhand market for networking gear is more active than most people expect. Routers, switches, and access points from recognizable brands hold value longer than consumer electronics in other categories, partly because the hobbyist and home lab communities have a consistent appetite for affordable hardware to learn on and experiment with.
Platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace are reasonable starting points for anything less than a few years old. A mid-range router from three or four years ago can still fetch a useful amount, and the process of selling it is no more complicated than selling anything else. Local buy/sell groups and community boards are worth checking too, especially for hardware that might not be worth the hassle of shipping. Switches really are a dime a dozen, especially when it comes to older, deprecated enterprise switches. If the person is willing to learn a bit about how to configure them, they can be a pretty great bargain for a segmented network or just as a learning tool.
Beyond resale, donation is an option that often gets overlooked. Schools, libraries, and community centers frequently operate on thin budgets and will sometimes accept working networking equipment. For students learning about networking or organizations trying to stretch limited IT resources, hardware that feels outdated to you may be exactly what they need. It won't make you rich, but it does put functional equipment to work rather than into a landfill.
Older hardware can be a real security risk
Retiring it from mission-critical use is the right thing to do
There are situations where old hardware genuinely has run its course, and it's worth being honest about that. Networking equipment old enough to lack support for current security standards, like WPA3, for instance, can carry real risk if it's deployed on an active network and no longer receiving firmware updates.
Beyond missing support for newer standards, older hardware can carry a more immediate risk in the form of known, documented vulnerabilities that will never be patched. When a manufacturer ends support for a device, security researchers don't stop finding problems with it, they ultimately just stop getting fixed. That means exploits can become publicly known and relatively easy to execute, turning an old router or switch into a soft target for anyone who knows where to look. If the piece of hardware is deployed in an isolated role, like in its own subnet or offline lab environment, it can be totally fine, but the risk of taking old stuff online is still very real.
Your old stuff has life left in the tank
Repurposing your old equipment is a great way to keep it out of a landfill, and asking "what else can this do?" could even save you some cash on a new access point for a remote area of your home, or extra switch for a home lab. It doesn't come without its risks, and sometimes hardware isn't worth reusing at all, but chances are, the equipment you upgraded away from probably has more life in it than you've given it credit for.
