I have a cheap SOHO wireless router (don't even remember the brand, probably linksys or d-link or belkin), which has worked fine for 3 years, but lately (last two weeks) it has been needing to be rebooted daily.

EDIT: It's a Belkin F5D7230-4 v8000.

The symptom is that you can connect to the router via Wifi but cannot surf the internet. Removing and reinserting the power plug to the router makes everything work again.

I could troubleshoot this, or I could just go buy a good wifi router. Does anyone know if there's a review site that tests the long-term reliability of wifi routers?

I had the same problem and fetched out a clockwork timeswitch that I bought ages ago for Christmas lights. It switches the router off and on again at 6am every day (when, for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not using it). Problem solved.

Peter

I certainly had considered something like that myself.

Still, just buying a known-reliable model would be more useful to me. And Uncle Google isn't helping me with that at the moment.

I'd also trust the anecdotal evidence about router reliability from the folks in this forum, more than I would trust from any of the forums discussions that came up in my Google search. So if anyone wants to chime in, I'm listening.

I've had extremely good luck with my D-link DIR-655 router. It's never acted strangely. Still, it's starting to show its age. It's an 'N' router, but it's only operates on the 2.4Ghz frequency. But that's fine with me.

If you want the fastest router out there currenly, you'll want the Asus RT-N66U. From what I hear and read a very good router, but I have no personal experience with it. It would probably be my current choice though. There's already an 'ac' version of it as well (wireless gigabit!), but the problem here is that there are currently *very* few wireless devices that actually support the ac standard (yet).

Thanks for that info!

Anyone: What about some of the "Cisco+Linksys" units I'm seeing at Best Buy?

All of the few I've ever owned were/are 100% reliable. Currently I have a pile of WRT54GL/GS routers, and a Netgear. All run Tomato firmware in one form or another another.

Not sure what it is that would make one "unreliable". ??

Oh wait, I did once have a pair of white-label ("Blanc") routers, which were unreliable -- bad firmware, and not easily replaceable. Also really crappy antennas on those.

But all others, Linksys, Netgear, DLink, and TP-Link. Just fine.

Tony, I've always been a fan of the WRT54GL routers, but those are outdated today (no gigabit or n). Still, they're very reliable.

Out of curiosity, what is your definition of reliable? How many years are you looking to get before something similar starts happening with the new router? Most of these things are $50-100, but are working around the clock running our whole networks and delivering constant radio signals. Even at the high end, I'd say that $25/year for such performance is pretty good. Yearly air filter replacements can be more expensive than that

A wireless router is solid state technology. In my case, a wireless router:
- Has no moving parts.
- Does not contain a battery that will degrade chemically over time (AFAIK).
- Has no consumable parts.
- Is kept in a room temperature environment (in my case, a closet).
- Is not subjected to any wear and tear.
- Is not moved, struck, or jostled.
- Is designed for a goal of 100 percent uptime.

To me, "reliable" for a piece of solid state electronics like that, would mean that it does not fail, ever, after any number of years, unless acted upon by outside forces.

I understand that the value proposition of a $50-100 router lasting three years is not a bad value proposition. I'm trying to find out what I have to pay for 100 percent reliability. More importantly, how to find out if such reliability statistics even exist.

I don't know how long I've been using my WRT54GL, but it's got to be at least 7 years - always running Tomato firmware. 24/7. For the first 4 years wired+wifi and for the last 3, wired routing only (turned off wifi). For the past 3.5 years I've been using an Apple Time Machine for WiFi access 24/7. No issues with either product.

That said, this WRT54GL was a replacement for an original WRT54G that died after a couple of years.

I just ordered a WRT54GL router based entirely on the recommendations of people on this bbs. Cost ~$50.

tanstaafl.

That would be your second WRT54GL, then. You already have another out on the patio.

No battery, but most electronics do have electrolytic capacitors, which normally have liquid chemistry inside. They have a life expectancy of 10-15 years, except for the bad batches from the 2000's that died after 1-4 years.

Heat is the enemy of electronics. Things DO degrade when kept hot for extended periods. Keeping things cool is worthwhile from a longevity point of view. I arrange most of my networking gear for optimal convection cooling, which usually means "mounted sideways on the wall".

Cheers

Okay, I revise my original life expectancy expectation. I expect a piece of solid-state electronics to outlast my car, i.e., 10-15 years. (My car has a billion moving parts and tons of consumables!)



I was under the impression (from Bansai8, who is an electronics quality control engineer) that the early-2000's capacitor problem was mostly a ROHS compliance issue. They had to use higher temps to flow the ROHS-compliant lead-free solder onto the boards, but the capacitors weren't up to the extra heat, and many of them leaked out of the foot-holes because the higher temps in the solder damaged them. Maybe I was understanding her wrong, but that was the impression I got.

This is what Mark is referring, to I believe, which spiked because of an instance of espionage.

My needs have been happily met by the a fore mentioned Linksys and an Asus WL520GU, running DD-WRT, and for the past few years the cleaner less feature rich Tomato. The Linksys is still chugging along at a co-workers house, and I know I bought that Linksys in mid-2006. The Asus was only bought in 2010 to see if I could use a cellphone as a modem with it - my Linux skills were not up to the task, and it gathered dust for a while.
Both of those routers wireless coverage covered our small house and reach well into the back yard. Granted neither is N or gigabit, but both meet the need of web browsing, Netflix streaming, and VOIP, from the 10 Mbit FiOS connection, and have done so without issue.

If you can do a firmware upgrade (even to the same firmware version) I've found that successful on a modem/router (still going today). Clear the settings and set it up again.

Whilst solid state, flash memory can and will drop bits. Also caps dry out which certainly will cause instability.

No problem. Just give each the same amount of maintenance. For a car, that means changing the oil, brake pads, rotors, rad fluid, and a few other consumables several times over that 10-15 years.

For routers, most should be good for 10 years with no maintenance, or 20 years if you change the caps once.

But yeah, I get where you're coming from.
And so does the motherboard industry, at least -- better ones now use "solid" caps instead of the liquid/gel electrolytic variety. Should be good for the full 15 years or so, unless overheated.

Cheers

Fascinating story! Wow.

I just want to address one more thing and that's the heat issue. Mark stated that heat could hurt these things, and Tony you mentioned that you'd like to keep this thing at room temperature (which I would think is fine) but in a closet. My networking stuff has always created a pretty decent amount of heat. Won't this be a concern?

I used to keep my cable modem and router in a cabinet. First, the modem died. And then, a couple weeks later, the Asus RT-N16 router died. I don't think it was a coincidence.

I have had, installed, and used any number and brand of consumer grade routers. In general they do last for multiple years, but often enough each eventually develops some sort of 'issue' or just a general suspicion that the router is causing trouble for the connected computers.

Currently the nicest routers I have been using are the current Apple Extreme routers. Very stable, reasonable heat and rather nice configuration software. They do NOT use a web browser for configuration, but free apps are available for iOS, Mac and I presume Windows.

Modern router specs all around, but not third party router firmware friendly (as far as I know).