Poor Life of Consumer Routers?

[WobbleWobble]

Since the last decade and a half, I've gone through many routers and every couple of years I find that my routers just end up dying or acting up on me.

I've gone through the various brands, SMC, D-Link, Linksys and find that none are really better than the other. They would work fine for a while then just start acting up like needing to be power cycled every few hours, or simply not issuing IPs.

I always have them plugged either into a UPS or a surge protector and nothing else I have electronic seems to have as short of a life as my routers do. I don't leave them stacked where heat can build up, they're normally just on the side of a desk in the open.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or do I just have poor luck when it comes to consumer routers?

 

[JackMDS]

In the last decade the technology concerning Entry Level Network was constantly evolving so it is Not so bad that every few years we need new hardware.

When you buy a car it loses few hundred $ of value every month.

When you go to a decent restaurant you pay above $30 for a meal (and few hours after you are hungry again )

A month of Broadband Internet subscription goes for over $30.

A decent Wireless Router can always be found for about $50 and be used for few years.

On the other hand the manufacturers can put better components and provide better support, but then it would cost Not $50 but $150 to buy an entry level Router.

So f someone can guarantee that the technology would not change for 5 years. I would buy a more expensive Entry Level Routers.

Right now given all of the above I do not think it is so bad.

I have, and worked with many of the Entry Level Routers, while here and there a specific unit from any of the manufacture would "die" in general, I never experienced the horror story like the one in the OP.

In matter of fact if there is any one to blame it is the Consumers who lavishly support a Sleazy releases like the Draft Wireless.

P.S. I have in the back closet box a gallery of wire, Wireless 802.11b Routers, and Access Points that are working ok and not in use because they were replaced by New Technology.

P.S. - 2 Most of the problem occur when people are Heavily using P2P download almost 24/7.

As far as I am concern since they save a fortune on the Movies, Software, and Music that they "legally" download they can spend few hundred $ on a SOHO Router.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Since the last decade and a half, I've gone through many routers and every couple of years I find that my routers just end up dying or acting up on me.

I've gone through the various brands, SMC, D-Link, Linksys and find that none are really better than the other. They would work fine for a while then just start acting up like needing to be power cycled every few hours, or simply not issuing IPs.

Routers are one area where you do get what you pay for.
There is only so much hardware they can put in a box and sell for $50.

I have some switches and routers that are 5 years old and still working that I bought at an auction from a bankrupt isp, but none of it, even now could be bought for cheap because people are still using it and it has value because of that.


Really the best a home user can do is to find a old pentium 2/3 pc in the trash and install some cards and www.pfsense.org . Or do as JackMDS suggested and pay out a few hundred for some pro level routers.

If you are a heavy torrent user, a cheap router will not hold up.

 

[spidey07]

Never had a problem. They're solid state, not much can fail on them. My linksys router is over 10 years old.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My WRT54G v2, and Motorola WR850G v2 (same Broadcom hardware) have been running in WDS mode nearly non-stop for several years without issue. (Except my dad accidentally bumped the plug on the moto router, had to go over there and plug it back in the other day.)

One of my Westell 327Ws dropped dead after a UPS incident one night, it was apparently killed by my APC UPS. Luckily it was early in my Verizon DSL contract so they sent me a new one. The new one occasionally stops broadcasting wireless, but is otherwise ok.

I have a couple of Netgear WRN834B v2 Wireless-N routers in WDS mode now, they seem alright. They are refurbs, hope they hold up, the reviews for most of Netgear's N routers aren't very good.

 

[WobbleWobble]

If my memory is correct, the routers that I've gone through and acted up on me were:

SMC7004ABR
SMC2804WBRP-G
Linksys WRT54GX4
Linksys WRT54GL
D-Link DI-704P

I know that routers aren't expensive, but as spidey mentioned they are solid state so I didn't think there were too many parts that can fail either. But I'm thinking it's mainly because routers in general don't have active cooling and components overheat with time.

I was hoping that the WRT54GL was the one good router that would last me until 802.11n finally got standardized. I ran Tomato on it for the longest time but I was running DD-WRT over the last few months on it. Perhaps DD-WRT firmware is more intensive than Tomato and causes

The replacement I just got was an Asus WL-520GU. I know it's not a high-end router and I could be asking for trouble again, but I guess it if lasts me 2-3 years then I've gotten the value I wanted out of it. I just don't like throwing things away and want to find something that would last so I can sell it when it is time to upgrade.

Using an PC isn't a bad idea, but I live in a condo where I don't really have room to set one up. I don't really use P2P, but I would say I'm a bit heavier than than the average user. All those routers listed weren't all mine, but also my girlfriend's family as well and they're definitely not heavy users. I've also seen a few other routers of family and friend's failing after a few years of use as well.

"Horror story" might be a bit strong, but I mainly wanted to see if I was the only one running into routers just failing with time.

 

[Turkish]

Not sure about WRT54GL but 54G was a horror story on my side. AFAIC, I have seen so many people having problems with it, I just used it as paperweight at the end. Pretty happy with my Telefonica subsidized router at the moment.

 

[ccbadd]

I think you should look at the state of pretty much all consumer electronics. We buy cheap disposable junk now. There are still some quality manufacturers, but most try to compete with cheap Chinese crap that last only a year or two. Look at those expensive Ipods that you can't replace the batteries. On a side note, if people wanted quality stuff and settled for having less stuff overall, consider what effect that would have on pollution, energy demand, global warming (BS in my book), etc.. I personally would like to slow things down and spend my money on quality stuff and make it worthless for companies to compete at the current throw-away level.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I'm going on year # 3 with my refurbed Netgear wireless router. I've had to restart it once in all this time. Now my cable modem is another story, it's a cheap Zoom modem and about once every 3 or 4 months it needs to be power cycled.

edit: I paid $20 for my netgear at fry's.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
I'm going on year # 3 with my refurbed Netgear wireless router.

Well la-dee-dah. I had one which lasted 6 months, until it went dead dead dead all by itself, at which time I looked at the 30 day warranty and thought "duh".

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
I'm going on year # 3 with my refurbed Netgear wireless router.

Well la-dee-dah. I had one which lasted 6 months, until it went dead dead dead all by itself, at which time I looked at the 30 day warranty and thought "duh".

Well no worries, now that I posted about it lasting this long I expect to go home and find it dead any day now.

 

[shempf]

I've had best luck with Netgear. Had 2 linksys die on me. Haven't had the Trendnet long enough to say. All are/were high-priced models.

 

[JackMDS]

Yeah I know it is Psychologically easy for the consumers to believe in the notion that they can buy by Brand, but let Not turn it in to a Technological realty.

I view the notion of Linksys good, Netgear may be, D-Link so, so, etc... and vice- versa as total baloney.

Each manufacturer has good model and bad model.

As far as Hardware is concern there is no one manufacturer in the sub $150 Network device market that is superior across the board to others.

The whole notion that something like this can happen is ridiculous.

The Chipset are done by others and constantly change in price and quality, the engineering and manufacturing places change during the time. Business alliance forge and are broken, the only thing that stays is the name.

Right Now while we are on holding pattern because of the 802.11n "disaster", if One really needs to buy. There is no point to buy with intention to keep the hardware very long into the Future.

The best thing right now is to buy the Asus 520gU for $40 and wait until the Draft goes away.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Yeah I know it is Psychologically easy for the consumers to believe in the notion that they can buy by Brand, but let Not turn it in to a Technological realty.

I view the notion of Linksys good, Netgear may be, D-Link so, so, etc... and vice- versa as total baloney.

Each manufacturer has good model and bad model.

As far as Hardware is concern there is no one manufacturer in the sub $150 Network device market that is superior across the board to others.

The whole notion that something like this can happen is ridiculous.

The Chipset are done by others and constantly change in price and quality, the engineering and manufacturing places change during the time. Business alliance forge and are broken, the only thing that stays is the name.

Right Now while we are on holding pattern because of the 802.11n "disaster", if One really needs to buy. There is no point to buy with intention to keep the hardware very long into the Future.

The best thing right now is to buy the Asus 520gU for $40 and wait until the Draft goes away.

I agree with you. And it really doesn't matter with price point in any consumer grade product. Every once in awhile a top brand is going to float a turd every once in awhile.
With my experience with this Netgear router it hasn't changed my opinion of them, as I have a Netgear Storage Station that is a complete pile of poop, and I had a netgear switch crap the bed on me in 2 days.

 

[imported_Knucklehead]

Still have a Netgear RT314 I purchased in 2000. Only stopped using it last summer when I built a new pfsence machine.
It's on it's second life at my parents house now. Most stable piece of computer equipment I ever bought...

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: Knucklehead
Still have a Netgear RT314 I purchased in 2000. Only stopped using it last summer when I built a new pfsence machine.
It's on it's second life at my parents house now. Most stable piece of computer equipment I ever bought...

Wired Routers are Not a big deal, nothing changed in their technology in the last 10 years.

Since I doubt that your folks are busy with heavy P2P activities the Router can go forever.

In contrast some of the Netgear Wireless Routers "su** big time".

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: Knucklehead
Still have a Netgear RT314 I purchased in 2000. Only stopped using it last summer when I built a new pfsence machine.
It's on it's second life at my parents house now. Most stable piece of computer equipment I ever bought...

I also have a Netgear RT314, but mine can't even hold a connection on a LAN port. Too bad, I'd love to be able to talk about how cool it is to use it after so long, and the big metal box sure looks old school compared to the others.

But I haven't always have bad luck with Netgear -- I also have a WGPS606 wireless bridge that's long past its best before date but still works -- that device held a stable connection day in and day out for years.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I know someone that was using a Netgear FVS318 8-port wired router for a number of years, pretty stably. It was getting old though, it took me five tries to login, using the (correct) default login/pw. It just wasn't accepting it, for some reason.

 

[robmurphy]

I have a Netgear WGT624 V3. I have been using this since mid 2005.

I now only use the wired section of it. The reason for not using the wireless is that the area I live in has many many wireless networks, causing various problems. I also prefer the simplicity and security of having the wireless turned off and relying on wired connections.

The only time it gets power reset now is when I reboot the cable modem. Most of the time its fine with torrents. I'm on a 20Mbs service from Virginmedia in the UK. I quite often get downloads of > 2MBs and have had the full 2.5 MBs more than a few times.

What does cause problems is very large torrents, i.e. 10 GB or more with many files. This could be a problem with the WGT624, or it may be the cable modem.

I will probably be replacing the router as the main one once the 50Mbs service becomes available. I still hope to have the time to get a linux router Vmware image running on the main PC to replace the router. If not I will have to see how the WGT624 performs. I will not be using the the Netgear router Virginmedia will be bundling with the 50Mbs service, as this is aimed mainly at wireless users, and I'm not using wireless at home. I may also look at using one of the newer Cisco routers in the 851 to 881 range. My preference if it works out however would be a linux router running as a Vmware image on the main PC.

Rob

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I absolutely will not purchase Linksys equipment. I have had nothing but problems with them with any of the ones I buy or that a friend buys and wants me to install it for them.

The usb wireless adapter I bought worked ok, but I lost the CD and low and behold, they took the drivers off their webpage for it and i couldn't find a compatible driver.

For wireless cards I now use the most generic cards i can find because I can use almost anyones driver on it.