Wired Only Router
You might be wondering if it’s any use today to have a router that does not have Wi-Fi. The truth is that this makes little sense in general, since in fact most connections today are wireless. Think of all the devices you use in your day to day and that you have in your home connected to the network. For example mobiles, tablets, televisions, IoT devices…
If you have a router that doesn’t have Wi-Fi, you’re really not going to be able to connect these devices. A mobile is not compatible with an Ethernet cable, so you will not be able to connect it. Other devices, on the other hand, yes. For example, you can connect a television or a computer via an Ethernet cable, but you are going to leave many others disconnected.
Therefore, in that sense, a router that does not have Wi-Fi or the wireless network is damaged you will not be able to take advantage of it. Now, there are circumstances in which you could use it as a repeater. In this way you will be able to give a second life to that old router that does not have Wi-Fi, either from the factory or because it is damaged.
This basically consists of connecting it by Ethernet cable to another router, which would be the main It will receive a signal and will be able to provide a connection in another place in the house. You will be able to increase the coverage of the signal, although you will have to connect devices by cable and not by wireless network, logically.
Again, you’d be limited to certain devices that support Ethernet, but you could use a router that doesn’t have Wi-Fi and only allows wired connections. This is something that can happen with old ADSL routers.
limited speed
Now, even if you decide to use an old router without Wi-Fi to use it as a network extender, you should keep in mind that speed will be limited. This is so since it would be an old router that, at most, will be Fast Ethernet. In the best case, the speed will be limited to 100 Mbps, but it will probably go to much less.
So while you can use an old router without Wi-Fi to carry your Internet connection from one place to another and connect via Ethernet cable, it doesn’t really make much sense today. You will not be able to take advantage of it practically and you will have many limitations. The ideal would be to have an alternative.
To take the connection to other places in the house and not have problems, it is best to have other devices. For example a Wi-Fi repeater, PLC devices or a Mesh system. This way you will achieve a good speed and avoid problems.