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Forum Discussion
nikarsena
Jan 27, 2022Follower
Do all routers eventually just start to die (nighthawk R7000)?
Right now running a Netgear R7000 running DD-WRT. Ive been experiencing a lot of issues lately and have to reboot often. This happened to my last router a few years back as well. Do all routers ev...
microchip8
Jan 27, 2022Master
Portwey84 wrote:nikarsena Well my 3 year old R7000 AC1900 (from actual known manufacture date) is still working ok, but as of the last 24 hours of me posting this, is now consigned to a box in the attic, probably never to be used again. Quite simply, I'd had enough of Netgear's seemingly useless firmware updates, the tragically poor browser GUI experience and the fact that it didn't make full use of my rebuilt ax compatible wifi desktop.
So I've now got myself a TP-Link AX6600 GX90, all set up and it's quite literally, dynamite! Super simple to configure, auto updated the firmware without any hitches (over ethernet) without me having to do any of the mucking about downloading firmware updates. Browser GUI is so much more intuitive and a lot more modern to look at. The WiFi range is also so much better. I stress it's early days, but if the experience I now have is anything to go by, then I think I've made the right choice. Yes it's marketed as a gaming router and I'm no gamer, but it's handling everything just as I like, so no complaints.
I guess this is me saying adios to Netgear.
Auto-update of firmware, regardless of manufacturer, is always a bad idea. Too many things can go wrong behind your back. Always do a manual, controlled firmware upgrade. Do not use wifi or any other method. Always use a hard-wired connecttion!
wcalifas
Jan 27, 2022Prodigy
To the original post,yes routers eventually die. Sometimes the wifi radio dies, sometimes the power adapter on them dies, and sometimes the capacitors inside the routers crap out. So yes they die eventually. Just depends how much you use them, streaming, gaming all take a toll on them eventually.
- FURRYe38Jan 27, 2022Guru - Experienced User
One thing that also helps extend HW life is adding air cooling to routers. I found that years ago that some routers didn't have adequite heat dissapation or cooling aid to help with internal ambient cooling. After adding a laptop cooler under a router, sure helps keep the HW much cooler than the intended design. Save the life of the HW too.
wcalifas wrote:
To the original post,yes routers eventually die. Sometimes the wifi radio dies, sometimes the power adapter on them dies, and sometimes the capacitors inside the routers crap out. So yes they die eventually. Just depends how much you use them, streaming, gaming all take a toll on them eventually.