How long do consumer routers usually last?

[Ant]

Like Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc. Just wondering.

Thank you in advance. :)
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[Char Jackson]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:44:36 -0600, ANT...@zimage.com (Ant) wrote:

>Like Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc. Just wondering.

In my experience, most get replaced because of technology
advancements, not because the old ones have died. Back around 2002, I
think, I deployed a bunch of Linksys BEFSR41's and some BEFSR11's, and
some are still in service while others have been replaced with
wireless models. Between about 2005 and 2010, I deployed a bunch of
Linksys WRT54G's (various hardware revisions), and most of those are
still in service while a few have been replaced with 802.11N models.
Between about 2009 and 2011 I deployed a half dozen WRT54GL's, all of
which are still in service.

Just some data points, not an answer to your question. If I had to
offer a number, I'd guess 10-12 years or so, with exceptions for early
failures and probably an equal number of exceptions for units that are
still going strong well after that point.

[John F. Morse]

I have three BEFSR41 routers. Plus a couple of SMCs and a Netgear, but
they are not used and not part of this discussion.

My first one, a BEFSR41 v2, was purchased around 1999 IIRC. It is still in
service on a very-low-traffic secondary WAN. It took over from a
IPNetRouter program running on a Mac IIci.

The second one, a BEFSR41 v3, was added around 2001, and it ran without
problems until sometime in 2010. It started "choking" on traffic every few
days, and had to be rebooted (power cycled) to get it running again. It
now sits unpowered as a standby in case the newest router should
completely die.

I purchased a third BEFSR41, v4.3, to take over the duty. I cloned the MAC
so I wouldn't need to edit my DNS pointers at my DNS provider.

After about a year, this v4.3 router is now experiencing the same failure
to handle packets (inbound and outbound).

The equipment is in a cool server rack which has air circulating fans, and
is powered by a UPS.

To eliminate a trip down three flights of stairs to reboot the router, I
discovered I could access the router's Webserver with a browser. That
seemed to give it a "kick start" and it would again run for a couple of
days.

But it would catch me asleep and stop working, meaning I could lose
connectivity for maybe eight hours.

I run a mail server (MTA/MDA) which receives around a thousand messages
per day, plus communicates with three RBL servers.

The major player is a Usenet server farm, which handles 300,000 to 500,00
inbound Usenet messages per day. Then it relays out around twice that
many. The received volume is around 200-400 MB, with about 300 MB to 1 GB
outbound.

Certainly not an enormous amount of data and it shouldn't cause a router
to become cripple.

Almost afraid to go to bed, or leave home, I created a simple hourly cron
job "wget linky4" (the router's hostname in my DNS), which would do the
same kick-start as accessing the Webserver from a browser. Time will tell
if this works.

But a solution is needed, or better, what could be the actual cause?
Getting someone at Cisco to answer questions is impossible.

Could these Linksys BEFSR41 routers contain a flash type of RAM that is
known to have a limited number of write (erase) cycles before the segments
are unreliable, and must be remapped by the controlling circuits?
Something on the same line as a USB thumbdrives and SSD which use "wear
leveling" to remap bad memory cells to new spare cells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

If so, the amount of data flowing through my routers day in and day out
may have exceeded the number of available spare data segments, and now the
router is getting "choked" when there is heavier traffic during certain
portions of a day.

If this is indeed the cause, then even running a wget on a cron job every
hour will someday not be able to kick the router back into sanity.

My next project, which I actually started two years ago, is to build a
dual- (or multi-) NIC Linux router box. It will certainly provide more
configuration flexibility, and better logging. I have all of the needed
hardware, but never made it though evaluating all of the many router and
firewall programs available.

The negative side is another computer running will consume more power than
a Linksys router, and generate a little more heat.

Anyone have any experience or knowledge with this kind of Linksys problem?



--
John

When a person has -- whether they knew it or not -- already
rejected the Truth, by what means do they discern a lie?