Internet is dying - diagnostics

[Karl Auer]

On Sat, 2017-10-21 at 19:57 -0600, compdoc wrote:
> What sort of router is it? If its consumer brand like d-link and
> many others, they tend to die after a few years of 24/ use.

This is FUD IMHO. I've had Cisco kit drop dead after a year, and a d-
link ASDL modem that is still going well after five years, and one
Siemens ADSL modem that is still going after 12 years. There is no
rhyme or reason.

If they die, they die suddenly and completely, or they run up against a
limitation when you go to change something. They rarely die in subtle
ways. That's not to say that they *never* do, just that it is rare.

Build quality is another matter. If you are frequently plugging and
unplugging stuff, for example, then the connectors on cheaper stuff
will often fail - either stop working completely or become unreliable.

That said, by all means swap out the router and see if things improve.
It can't hurt, and routers are cheap these days.

For anyone who is not a geek, I firmly recommend AGAINST a roll-your-
own solution running on a computer. They chew far more power, have many
more moving parts, and are massively much more expensive in time and
hardware. You do get a completely customisable and extremely full-
featured router, but unless that's what you need, the cost (especially
in time) is over the top. A $50 MikroTik router gives you a HUGE
feature set; add a $20 modem and it will cover just about any need.

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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