Router lifetime

[Enderg312]

How long do routers last before they give decreased performance?

[Bombastinator]

Wireless ones?  Variable by neighborhood interference and wifi versions as they update. Wired ones I haven’t seen a time based change myself.  Might be one and I just haven’t seen it.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Enderg312 said:

How long do routers last before they give decreased performance?

They should never give decreased performance, although the PSUs or capacitors in them can go bad which can indeed decrease performance.  That can be as simple as replacing the PSU or more complicated if you need to replace the capacitors.

As it depends on the quality of the parts they used, how hot the routers gets which also depends on the conditions in your house and if you cram it into a unventilated cabinet, there is no rule of thumb for how long that might be.

[Enderg312]

Well for some reason its only giving half of the whole wi-fi speed, and I even factory reset the router to see if that would fix it but it didn't work.

[Donut417]

19 minutes ago, Enderg312 said:

Well for some reason its only giving half of the whole wi-fi speed, and I even factory reset the router to see if that would fix it but it didn't work.

Thats because WiFi has lots of shit that interferes with it. WiFi is not Ethernet its not reliable. Other WiFi networks, Walls, other devices all contribute to a lack of performance on WiFi. Also no WiFi standard ever lives up to 100% of what it can do. WiFi standards are created and tested in a laboratory with no external interference. In the real world I feel you can get about 2/3rds of what the standard can do on a GOOD day. 

 

A few things you can check however.

 

1) The band you connected to. 5 Ghz is the performance band while 2.4 Ghz is more for distance. 

2) The wireless channel. This is very much important on 2.4 Ghz as for example in the US channels 1-11 are the only legal ones you can use. Channels 1, 6 , and 11 also dont overlap with each other, while the other channels will overlap in to adjacent channels. 

3) WiFi card in device. You need to see what the radio in or device is rated for. Also what's the radio in the router rated for. The Wireless link can only go as fast as the slowest. 

4) Building materials. Drywall, wood and such is not very dense and allows WiFi to pass thru. Concrete and brick on the other hand is very dense and not WiFi friendly. 

 

[Bombastinator]

Local WiFi’s on the same channel can be an annoyance too.  I actually used to have a phone app that looked to see what band was the least congested.  I knew a guy who actually went to USB A for a while because while it was slow as dirt no one else in the area used it so the channels were uncontested and the penetration was excellent so the result was he got better bandwidth with it. For a while anyway.