New Router Purchase

[Michael Butash]

Granted, hardware goes bad, but it's "working yesterday, dead like a brick
now" bad usually.  Hardware almost never degrades in just performance, save
some Cisco devices using non-ecc memory over the years (why they don't sell
load-balancers anymore).

Software may leak resources, kids/roommates might overconsume sessions
torrenting to abuse router cpu, but hardware alone won't diminish
performance over time.  I still say audit your traffic patterns with some
network tools, but having a better router too never hurts.

Oddly I've found decent (netgear, cisco) wifi routers at my local Goodwill
in Peoria, I just verify they can use dd-wrt images while there, how much
memory/cpu they have (if they can use full or limited images).  For a while
was hooking up friends and family with decent units for less than $7 each.
Ebay you can probably find better options, but as long as it's flashable
with dd-wrt, you're likely not going to get one gone "bad" if it works at
all.

-mb

On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 5:20 PM Stephen Partington <cryptworks at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have had a router go bad. The rom failed.
>
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:13 PM Michael Butash <michael at butash.net> wrote:
>
>> I really don't find routers "go bad" as they outlive their usefulness.
>> Most people find their routers can't handle their usage when providers
>> offer 100mbps+ connections, but sometimes something is simply abusing your
>> network, and your router isn't good at showing it to you.
>>
>> Coming from the enterprise space, when something stops working, I see
>> what is wrong, as something is always wrong if it's broken.  In a consumer
>> router, what is usually the matter is something creating too many sessions,
>> or simply exceeding bandwidth capabilities.  Ahem, Bittorrent, or some
>> other uncontrolled vermin.  Some people it's 5 people watching netflix at
>> the same time, or heavy gaming.
>>
>> I can usually feel when my network is broken at home, and almost always
>> find a reason for it.  Only time I upgrade is when I want to test a new
>> piece of kit I got from ebay.
>>
>> I've run cisco asa, netgear/dd-wrt routers, fortigate firewall currently,
>> considering getting a palo alto.  My netgear flashed with dd-wrt was great
>> for years, a R710 nighthawk, and only reason I upgraded to my fortigate was
>> just to dogfood features for customers of mine using fortigate.  I got
>> lucky buying a fortigate on ebay, 2 years later some large defense
>> contractor company keeps paying for my enterprise support on the unit for
>> full filter and threat feeds on it, so at least my tax dollars go for
>> something good finally.
>>
>> -mb
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 12:17 PM <techlists at phpcoderusa.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> It appears I am having Internet router problems.  Occasionally I will
>>> not be able to access the Internet for a few seconds to a minute or so.
>>> This morning I was not able to access the Internet at all.
>>>
>>> I am with Cox and have a home office business account.  I called Cox and
>>> they suggested bypassing my router and connect directly to their modem.
>>> That worked.  Based on that I think my router is going bad.
>>>
>>> I had turned off the modem and the router for a maybe an hour or so
>>> while I did other things.  I now have access.
>>>
>>> I would like a secure router.  Cox says almost any modern router will be
>>> secure.  Security is a big issue.  When I look at all the WiFi that is
>>> available in my neighborhood I see maybe 10 routers.  That is scary!
>>>
>>> Since I have a business account that allows servers I have been using
>>> port forwarding.  I am a programmer and occasionally I fire up my laptop
>>> turned server for testing.
>>>
>>> I also have set up my WiFi to only accept those devices that I have
>>> configured by MAC address.
>>>
>>> Any toughs on my pending router purchase?
>>>
>>> Thank you so much for all your feedback!!
>>>
>>> Keith
>>>
>>>
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