Why are routers getting so expensive?

[VirtualLarry]

Gigabit switches are getting cheaper (wired networking gear), so why is wireless increasing in price?

Does Moore's Law not apply to wireless? It seems like all of the wireless vendors took a page out of NVidia's playbook.

And yet, feature-wise, third-party firmwares still beat out factory firmwares.

So what are you getting for your money? A "sexy box", to show off to your geeky neighbors?

I think it's utterly ridiculous. We should be seeing 802.11ac routers from all of the major vendors for $50-60 by now.

 

[PliotronX]

They're also getting a lot of under-the-hood improvements namely processors. Never thought I'd see SOHO routers with multicore procs. The designs are just what people want to see, gaudy shiny doohickies to match their faux French bordeaux.

 

[Genx87]

Increasing feature sets? Don't some SOHO routers do intrusion protection and gateway AV now?

 

[JackMDS]

Actually if you consider what going On into a good design with good components Wireless Router are priced very low as compare to most computers' parts.

This plastic tray for 2.5" HD costs $9. Does it What take more than 10 Cents to make it?

 

[PliotronX]

Actually if you consider what going On into a good design with good components Wireless Router are priced very low as compare to most computers' parts.

This plastic tray for 2.5" HD costs $9. Does it What take more than 10 Cents to make it?

That right there is a bonafied widget. If it was going into space itd be worth 10,000 easily.

 

[azazel1024]

Gigabit switches are getting cheaper (wired networking gear), so why is wireless increasing in price?

Does Moore's Law not apply to wireless? It seems like all of the wireless vendors took a page out of NVidia's playbook.

And yet, feature-wise, third-party firmwares still beat out factory firmwares.

So what are you getting for your money? A "sexy box", to show off to your geeky neighbors?

I think it's utterly ridiculous. We should be seeing 802.11ac routers from all of the major vendors for $50-60 by now.

To handle things, they need higher quality components. Better amplifiers, filters, more RAM, more powerful SoCs, better radios, etc.

It costs. Also latest and greatest. When 11n first came around, the first really high end 11n routers were expensive too.

Even MORE radios/chains in these things than the early high end 11n routers.

 

[Engineer]

Larry,

My Asus RT-N16 died (I suspect that the flash has went bad as I can get it to into recovery mode but no flash will take) and I've been looking for a cheap router too (prefer Tomato compatible). I have noticed that the prices are through the roof compared to just a few years ago. Even older hardware is still high (RT-N16 for example).

Actually if you consider what going On into a good design with good components Wireless Router are priced very low as compare to most computers' parts.

This plastic tray for 2.5" HD costs $9. Does it What take more than 10 Cents to make it?

If you sell enough, sure but the $500,000 to $1,000,000 injection molding machine costs lots of money to recoup!

 

[boomhower]

I paid $180is for my AC66U and thought it was fair. Now the firmware is a different animal all together. My first requirement for a new router is it already has a stable DD-WRT flash ready. They have certainly gotten better but not to the point I can tolerate them yet.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for multi-core CPUs and other technological advancements in routers. But when the newest routers cost MORE than the newest budget pre-built PC desktops do, then you KNOW that the router mfgs are just price-gouging, for the newest "fashion" router (like your newest fashion cell-phone).

If a damn little router box cost more than $300, I'll look into spinning my own using an ITX motherboard.

 

[Cerb]

I think it's utterly ridiculous. We should be seeing 802.11ac routers from all of the major vendors for $50-60 by now.

Good N routers are still in that price range. N hasn't gone down any, lately. So, why would AC be that low, yet?

 

[Cerb]

Larry,

My Asus RT-N16 died (I suspect that the flash has went bad as I can get it to into recovery mode but no flash will take) and I've been looking for a cheap router too (prefer Tomato compatible).

What about an RT-N16? I just set a brand new one up today . It's the new WRT54G! Many $40 N routers are kinda flakey, and AC are just crazy pricey, if you avoid the ones with user reviews including bricking and flakiness.

Maybe it's that the costs are about as low as they can go, considering parts and assembly? AC will then require faster hardware than that minimum, to boot.

 

[Engineer]

What about an RT-N16? I just set a brand new one up today . It's the new WRT54G! Many $40 N routers are kinda flakey, and AC are just crazy pricey, if you avoid the ones with user reviews including bricking and flakiness.

Maybe it's that the costs are about as low as they can go, considering parts and assembly? AC will then require faster hardware than that minimum, to boot.

My RT-N16 died after a few years of service. I've never had another router die (including the two - $15 Belkin's that I have running 2.4GHz and 2.4GHz/5GHz Dual Band N - both with Gigabit ports and both running Tomato - rock solid). My RT-N16 was rock solid under Tomato for those years but alas, there is something wrong with it. I've ordered a RS232-TTL level adapter to try to talk to it. Hell, I might even build / buy a JTAG cable unit to try to recover it (again, I suspect the flash rom is bad in the unit and it won't matter what I throw at it).

I wish I had bought more of the Belkin's when they were so very cheap (and available).

 

[repoman0]

Because people will pay it, I guess. My roommate and I were dumb enough to pay $200 for an ASUS RT-68U but I have to say, it was a good purchase -- 0.5+ Gb/s in my bedroom that I couldn't even get a signal with a WRT54GL or some Netgear N router, and it's not necessary to reboot it 8 times daily to maintain a stable lag-free connection.

 

[Cerb]

My RT-N16 died after a few years of service. I've never had another router die (including the two - $15 Belkin's that I have running 2.4GHz and 2.4GHz/5GHz Dual Band N - both with Gigabit ports and both running Tomato - rock solid). My RT-N16 was rock solid under Tomato for those years but alas, there is something wrong with it. I've ordered a RS232-TTL level adapter to try to talk to it. Hell, I might even build / buy a JTAG cable unit to try to recover it (again, I suspect the flash rom is bad in the unit and it won't matter what I throw at it).

I wish I had bought more of the Belkin's when they were so very cheap (and available).

I've only seen old (V1-V4, pre-"L") WRT54Gs, the Buffalo competitor (forget model name), and more recent Buffalo "flap" antenna family ones, not die, or at least get unstable, after awhile, of consumer routers. Most seem to get 3-5 years, and then need replacement.

 

[Phynaz]

Just buy a crappy Trendnet router and get what you pay for. Seriously Larry, you should consider another hobby.

 

[Engineer]

Just buy a crappy Trendnet router and get what you pay for. Seriously Larry, you should consider another hobby.

I've only seen old (V1-V4, pre-"L") WRT54Gs, the Buffalo competitor (forget model name), and more recent Buffalo "flap" antenna family ones, not die, or at least get unstable, after awhile, of consumer routers. Most seem to get 3-5 years, and then need replacement.

I know of two WRT54G series (one regular version 2 and one TMobile special version ($5.00 at the time new)) that have been running for years and have not died (they were running in my house for years and now are running in a friends house as well as my daughter's apartment). Those were really great routers. Just not enough horsepower for today's higher speed connections, much less the features that many people want.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just buy a crappy Trendnet router and get what you pay for. Seriously Larry, you should consider another hobby.

Actually, I got a TrendNet 652 for a (now late) friend of mine, several years back, and it performed quite well for their entire household (6-7 PCs, cable internet speeds). It flaked out just before he passed, and I ended up with it. Got a hold of a new power brick for it, and it seemingly works like new. Never needed rebooting, until up near the very end when it started to get flaky, before I replaced the PSU.

TrendNet routers aren't bad at all. Shows what you know.

You want to talk poor routers, firmware-wise, look at Buffalo. I picked up a WHR-600D from TD recently, to replace my E2500 running Tomato (kept overheating and dropping the wireless), and the firmware was atrocious. Literally almost retarded. They didn't offer any manual WAN setup option, and certainly no static IP for WAN. Several times, when I booted it, I was getting the primary router as gateway, instead of this router. (Shows that the application processor wasn't booting, and the switch in back was wide-open, LAN and WAN together merged.)

I finally managed to find the newest beta DD-WRT image for it, and now it's running somewhat acceptably.

But if I can survive on decent, stable, Netgear routers running DD-WRT, for a number of years, at $30 ea or less cost, and then some E2500 routers running Tomato for another few years, at $35 ea cost or so, then that proves that routers don't have to be expensive to get decent ones.

Edit: It seems that not all TrendNet products are as solid as the BRP-652 v1.0 (Atheros chipset) router. Here's some reviews for their N450 media bridge, and it seems like an overall pretty crappy product. Perhaps their quality has been slipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156310

 

[rsutoratosu]

Well if you got tmobile in us, you get that ASUS (RT-AC68U) for 25 deposit.. like a rental.. I gotta go pick mine up eventually.. its like a free AC router

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well if you got tmobile in us, you get that ASUS (RT-AC68U) for 25 deposit.. like a rental.. I gotta go pick mine up eventually.. its like a free AC router

I saw that deal. I'm on pre-paid so it would be $100 for me. Still, a reasonable price for that router.

 

[Genx87]

Heh I have a Buffalo router. Bought it 3 years ago. Only time it gets rebooted is when we lose power. Only router I have had that is as solid was a Cisco 830.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I guess my yardstick of comparison is between a decent budget PC and a router.

Back when the WRT54G was new (I have a v1 I inherited), I think it either cost $79.99, or around $120, I don't remember exactly. It was on sale at Staples. It was cutting-edge at the time.

My PC, a custom job, was probably worth $400-500 in parts.

It's kind of like comparing the price of cereal, as compared to the consumer price index. When it rises faster, you get suspicious. That's what is happening in routers these days.

I mean, when you can get quad-core Atom 64-bit tablets, with 2GB RAM, and 32GB storage, and wireless AC, for under $150, and that includes a touch-screen LCD, why are lesser dual-core ARM routers, with 128 or 256MB RAM and storage, and no touch-screen, selling for over $300? It's patently obvious that mfgs are price-gouging, based on "fashion".

 

[evident]

how's it "fashion" when there are bona-fide features and processors in those routers too?

 

[serpretetsky]

msrp of the wrt54g was 149$. Accounting for inflation makes that 197$. Later it dropped to 70$.

When wireless-n was ratified I don't remember selling any 802.11 n router for cheaper than 70$ (those were usually the crappy models, the nicer ones were 130 and up).

I am seeing 802.11 AC routers online for about 70.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...DkahoCZl3w_wcB

What 300$ router are you referring to?

edit: I forgot to point out that comparing gigabit switches to wireless routers is not a fair comparison. Consumer-grade gigabit switches have only one job to do: pass traffic at gigabit speeds. This job does not change between the years. A consumer grade gigabit switch from 6 years ago is still doing the same job as a consumer grade gigabit switch now.

A wireless router from 6 years ago, on the other hands, has DRASTICALLY different requirements. Internet speeds were slower, there was less torrent traffic to overload NAT tables, wireless speeds were slower, few routers had other functionality like usb ports, traffic shaping, etc etc.

You might as well compare a wireless router 6 years ago and now with a gigabit switch 6 years ago and a 10-gigabit switch now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

msrp of the wrt54g was 149$. Accounting for inflation makes that 197$. Later it dropped to 70$.

When wireless-n was ratified I don't remember selling any 802.11 n router for cheaper than 70$ (those were usually the crappy models, the nicer ones were 130 and up).

I am seeing 802.11 AC routers online for about 70.

What 300$ router are you referring to?

All of the newest AC routers are around $300 or more. At least, last time I went to Newegg, and clicked on Wireless routers, and it was sorted on "Featured".

Edit: Here's a few:
NETGEAR R7500-100NAS Nighthawk X4 AC2350 Dual Band WiFi Gigabit Smart Router $279.99
ASUS RT-AC87U Wireless-AC2400 Dual-band Gigabit Router $279.99
NETGEAR R8000-100NAS Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless Router $299.99
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless AC Dual Band Router AC1900, Open Source ready, eSATA/ USB 3.0 Ports $228.99

A wireless router from 6 years ago, on the other hands, has DRASTICALLY different requirements. Internet speeds were slower, there was less torrent traffic to overload NAT tables, wireless speeds were slower, few routers had other functionality like usb ports, traffic shaping, etc etc.

While that is true, what about Moore's Law? In 6 years, that's three DOUBLINGs of processor speed and memory size. So are today's routers, more or less than 8X faster than 6-year-old routers? Do they have 8X the RAM and storage? Do they cost the same for 8X performance?

And if processor demands and storage are increasing faster than Moore's Law provides for at the same price point, is that also an indication that internet usage is increasing faster than Moore's Law? Is that going to be a problem for higher-end carriers too?

 

[repoman0]

All of the newest AC routers are around $300 or more. At least, last time I went to Newegg, and clicked on Wireless routers, and it was sorted on "Featured".

This post is in this very thread -- 200 bucks, top of the line and brand new. :\

Because people will pay it, I guess. My roommate and I were dumb enough to pay $200 for an ASUS RT-68U but I have to say, it was a good purchase -- 0.5+ Gb/s in my bedroom that I couldn't even get a signal with a WRT54GL or some Netgear N router, and it's not necessary to reboot it 8 times daily to maintain a stable lag-free connection.