Can Wireless Routers Wear Out Over Time?

[gmax137]

I have a tablet I use at home, and lately it is slow to load internet pages. If I turn "Airplane Mode" ON then OFF, the slow page will load. Or I can disconnect from my wireless network and then re-connect, and the page loads. When I had this problem in the past I was advised "your router is worn out, get a new one." When I bought the router I have now, I asked the clerk at Best Buy and he assured me this was a "good" router and would solve my problems. Well that was 2 1/2 years ago and indeed it worked fine until a few months ago. Giving a useful lifetime close to the last router.

That just doesn't sound right to me. What could be "wearing out"?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Usually power supplies (including internal ones) are the first component to fail. But usually the symptom is not acting flaky but instead failing completely.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I had similar symptoms. Turn off; let sit for a few minutes; turn on worked fine. Turns out my kid gave the password to neighbor kid. I changed passwords for admin and user1 -- and the problem went away.

 

[Rive]

usually the symptom is not acting flaky but instead failing completely.

Sometimes it's starting with the wifi module running out of juice mid-sequence => frame errors.
Sometimes a new set of electrolytic capacitor can solve the issue.

 

[Dr Transport]

Years ago I had a cable modem doing the same thing, it would drop off. Support told me that the vintage of the modem wasn't able to update the firmware, so get a new modem. Problem fixed, never had an issue after that.

 

[gmax137]

But the router worked fine with this same tablet when both were new. I suppose the tablet has had some automatic updates over the past two years; do you think that could make it incompatible with the router? I have to admit this tech is black magic to me. Maybe I need to look into downloading updates to the router.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It could easily be things like dropping DHCP leases. Updates can change things like the duration. But these usually go away quickly as things sync back up.

 

[MikeeMiracle]

There are various wifi "channels" that are used, this is automatically determined by the router on start up. If you suddenly appeared to have a drop of service which work safter restarting it's likely that someone else living close to you is using the same channel. Sometime's you can set these manually in the router so they stay on a "good" channel. There are various "Wifi analyzer" programs that can tell ylu what your channel is and those around you are using.

 

[Tea Monster]

I used to work for several ISPs and we would constantly have hubs and routers fail. I don't know why, as there are no moving parts, but every now and again one would just 'die' and have to be replaced. Once my boss at the time had to don a harness and climb to the top of a tower on Agua Ramon mountain in Colorado to replace one. Good fun (not!).

 

[gmax137]

I replaced my router with a new one and the connectivity problems disappeared.

 

[anorlunda]

I wonder if there is a factory reset function for routers. I'm like most people and I can no longer locate the manual.

 

[MikeeMiracle]

The router you get from the ISP is likely pre-configured. If you hard reset it you would likely lose the information required to get online. Hardware does fail from time to time, it's to be expected.