What's the typical lifespan of a router?

[jtvang125]

Lately my roommates and I have been having problems with our router. We currently have 4 computers sharing a DSL line and what we've been experiencing is random connection loss to the router. Sometimes we'll get that message saying the a network connection is not available and sometimes we don't but we'll have no internet connection. Then we'll have to restart the router by unplugging it but even then it sometimes takes a few minutes to get a IP address.

Does this sound like our router is going out? We had this router for 3 years now.

 

[spidey07]

Its solid state electronics...it should las 10 years or more.

sounds like a provider problem.

 

[suszterpatt]

My STLab router seems to be dying after 2 and a half years. It's a miracle that I can post this even, it's gone completely nuts.

 

[Sunner]

If it's DLink I'd be happy if it lasted more than 1 year.
I've got a total of 3 DLink switches at home.
One is dead, one has a dead AC/DC adapter, one has a dead cooling fan.
Have a bunch at work as well, most are either dead or have ports that can't handle media negotiations or just plain won't work.

All in all the ones I've had to do with have had a 75+% failure(total of partial) rate over 2-3 years, which is why I never buy DLink again.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Originally posted by: Sunner
If it's DLink I'd be happy if it lasted more than 1 year.
I've got a total of 3 DLink switches at home.
One is dead, one has a dead AC/DC adapter, one has a dead cooling fan.
Have a bunch at work as well, most are either dead or have ports that can't handle media negotiations or just plain won't work.

All in all the ones I've had to do with have had a 75+% failure(total of partial) rate over 2-3 years, which is why I never buy DLink again.

I concur, my dlink goes on and off randomly for no reason. I need to switch it when I get some money.

 

[kevnich2]

Spidey, what in your opinion is the best soho type equipment then? Dlink, linksys (now part of cisco), netgear or belkin?

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Spidey, what in your opinion is the best soho type equipment then? Dlink, linksys (now part of cisco), netgear or belkin?

Not that I'm spidey, but in my experience, and from what I've heard from others, Linksys is good for what you pay.
I'd rate Belkin the lowest, I've dealt with mice, kvm switches, bluetooth adapters, everything screws up, they just can't seem to make stuff that works.

Netgear IMO is ok, but nothing more.

 

[JackMDS]

Highlights of few examples concerning Entry Level Hardware.

SMC 7004BR 5 years still working.

SMC 7004WBR 4 years still working.

SMC Access point 4 years still working.

Belkin Wireless Router 3 years still working.

D-Link 900AP+ 3 years still working.

A variety of PCMCIA Cards 4-2 years old, all working.

Buffalo Tech, Wireless Router, Access Point, USB, PCI, PCMCIA, more than a year, still working.

As well as more Hardware that is less than a year.

I do not had one single unit that stop working and had to be discarded.

However in numerous times I did not like the way Wireless hardware performed and I retuned it within days of purchase.

I can not single out one Brand in particular they all about equally to be blamed.

What all of this means? Nothing.

Why?

Because of poor Quality control, the Intra Brand reliability is worse then InterBrand Reliability.

Lucky for us this Hardware is so Inexpensive that if few guys save on one day brews them can buy a new Router (and they would be healthier).:thumbsdown::shocked:

At the moment if I have to buy I buy Buffalo Tech.

:sun:

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Spidey, what in your opinion is the best soho type equipment then? Dlink, linksys (now part of cisco), netgear or belkin?

Quite frankly I have no idea.

I guess my post was off the mark. I'm used to network gear lasting 5-10 years or more. Guess the consumer market is completely different.

Well of course its different...but I mean this is just solid state electronics and IMHO shouldn't fail in under 5 years. But I guess with these guys rushing stuff to market with no financial repercussions (customers just keep buying) that's what you get.

 

[skyking]

I do not had one single unit that stop working and had to be discarded.

I've had two.
One was a Dlink router that absolutely became a blinking brick. I tried every form of communication, telnet, etc, gave myself an addy in the right class "C" where it used to live, reset, cool it off, talk dirty to it, talk nice to it. That one made a nice rattle in the steel garbage can.
The other was an SMC 7004VBR that became very undependable on the WAN link. It still serves as a dumb switch

 

[spidey07]

No offense.

But the inability to communicate with a network device does not mean it is faulty. Most times its configuration.

 

[skyking]

None taken

I think it may have suffered a power surge. I was 150 miles away when I got the report the internet was down at my sisters. I talked them through a simple power cycle of the modem and router, with no luck. When I got there, it was flashing an activity light in a manner I had never seen before. I tried my various methods. "He's dead, Jim"

EDIT: RE the OP's question; as stated before, they are solid state devices. usually the rare bad ones fail right out of the box. I have seen several examples of ones that died sometime after, and there is no predicting it.