If you are reading this post, chances are you are using WiFi, or wireless fidelity. Before WiFi, any device accessing the Internet had to be physically connected, either by phone line or Ethernet cable. Nowadays, many ordinary web surfers never have to deal with hooking up a wire to their device to access the Internet, thanks to WiFi. A WiFi router like the one here acts as the gateway between many wireless devices and a single Internet connection. My generation has witnessed the shift from wired to wireless communication, either over WiFi or a cellular data network.

Most of the time, I don’t even think about being on the WiFi network nearby wherever I am because in general, my device joins automatically. WiFi is ubiquitous. At WSU, the WSU Wireless network blanket the campus, even outdoors. Coffee shops, gyms, airports, trains, buses, and even airplanes now offer free WiFi, often without a password. So many people take WiFi for granted that when it goes down, people become upset, even if it is provided as a courtesy. Recently, many laptops have been shipped without Ethernet ports to facilitate a wired Internet connection in exchange for slimmer designs, further necessitating WiFi connectivity.

A Linksys WRT54G wireless router. Photo by Charlie Hanacek, August 2018

I chose this particular router because I happened to have it, but also because it was one of the best selling early WiFi routers. The Linksys WRT54G served both consumer and enterprise customers. The blue and gray case with the double antennas was an iconic design that proved to be successful. These routers were designed to be vertically stackable with each other in order to increase the number of possible WiFi users in a single area. I remember walking into my local public library and seeing one mounted on the wall to provide free-to-access Internet in 2008.

The router pictured here would be relatively slow by today’s standards, but certainly usable for normal web browsing. The Media Archaeology Lab‘s mission is to keep new technology in perspective with old technology. In this way, people who are accustomed to browsing the Internet with the latest WiFi standards might get frustrated if they experienced slow speeds. However, those slow speeds would probably be top-of-the-line for this WiFi router. I don’t use this router for my day to day tasks, but if I had to, it would probably work great.