- 2025
- Mar
- 13
The Linksys WML11B media player - it’s time to say goodbye.
A few years ago, I wrote a piece detailing some fun I had with a Hamvention find, an ancient Linksys WML11B media player. You can find that article right here.
This is a device from the very beginnings of the Consumer Internet Age, and is evidenced by it’s early Wireless-B connectivity. Fortunately, it also offers an Ethernet connection. But…that’s about it. Modern browsers refuse to communicate properly with this thing’s web interface, seeing as how it was designed to be used with IE6. Modern HTTPS audio streams don’t work here because HTTPS was just starting to show up in the consumer space when this was made.
The weirdest thing is that a gigabit Ethernet port, which is usually more than capable of negotiating downward, doesn’t work well with this device. The device will simply stop playing and claim it has no connection after a short period, usually around an hour. A 100base connection will play for hours until the relatively fragile buffering in this device hits a hiccup and it stops.
That’s a real shame too, because this is actually a pretty good sounding device, probably on par with the Squeezebox Boom that came much later. What’s also a shame is, while this did have a now long-gone backend that would feed it station lists, it also had it’s own internal presets. You could use this thing and not have to worry about someone pulling a Reciva on you.
Seeing as how those squeezebox devices are still viable due to the continuation of the media server by Lyrion, I’ve decided to replace this unit with a used Squeezebox Radio that I purchased online for cheap. I’m not sure what to do with it, but the amplified speakers could be useful since they’re of decent size and good sound quality.
Who knows…you may see it at a hamfest near you!
