don’t buy shit unless it runs openwrt or whatever
but does it run openwrt?
e: no it doesn’t, only one model had half-baked image made and available for download from some sketchy forum post made in 2014
I agree. Buy a new router that isn’t Dlink.
I mean, some of those EOLed nearly a decade ago.
You can argue over what a reasonable EOL is, but all hardware is going to EOL at some point, and at that point, it isn’t going to keep getting updates.
Throw enough money at a vendor, and I’m sure that you can get extended support contracts that will keep it going for however long people are willing to keep chucking money at a vendor – some businesses pay for support on truly ancient hardware – but this is a consumer broadband router. It’s unlikely to make a lot of sense to do so on this – the hardware isn’t worth much, nor is it going to be terribly expensive to replace, and especially if you’re using the wireless functionality, you probably want newer WiFi standards anyway.
I do think that there’s maybe a good argument that EOLing hardware should be handled in a better way. Like, maybe hardware should ship with an EOL sticker, so that someone can glance at hardware and see if it’s “expired”. Or maybe network hardware should have some sort of way of reporting EOL in response to a network query, so that someone can audit a network for EOLed hardware.
But EOLing hardware is gonna happen.
This is the correct reaction to old home equipment.
When the users are in control of the software running on their devices then “EOL” is dependent the user community’s willingness to work on it themselves.
I think there should be a handoff procedure, or whatever you want to call it.
As EOL approaches, work with whatever open router OS maker is available (currently OpenWRT) to make sure it’s supported, and configs migrate over nicely. Then drop one last update, designed to do a full OS replacement.
Boom, handoff complete.
EoL of anything should mean open source code. You don’t want to open source your code? Then you must keep servicing your products and must keep your servers up
EU is cooking something with EU Directive on Liability for Defective Products. I’ve read only part of it, but basically companies are liable for bugs in software unless they opensource it.
The ones with EOL 2015, fair play. But May 2024 isn’t all that long ago.
Edit: Looks like those were launched in early 2015. I guess requesting users to update devices after 8+ years might not be too far fetched.
all hardware is going to EOL at some point, and at that point, it isn’t going to keep getting updates
EOLing hardware should be handled in a better way
Both of these are solved by one thing: open platforms. If I can flash OpenWRT on to an older router then it becomes useful again.
Definitely don’t this in the past (Linksys WRT54G!) but let’s be honest, the kind of people running 10yo Dlink routers aren’t going to flash new firmware, let alone OpenWRT or even know to look for it. It would have to come that way from the factory. And even then I doubt most people even do regular updates, sadly.
Counter point: so it should automatically update every night when updates are available, and should have or migrate to an open standard at mfg EoL or from the factory.
It’s still the mfg fault, full stop.
If I can flash OpenWRT on to an older router then it becomes useful again.
well, only if it has more than 4 MB storage, 8 MB RAM. I’m practically swimming in older routers that can’t even pass that requirement, and even today the cheaper, that is, more affordable options are still near that for some fucking reason.
Bingo.
Either support the device until the heat death of the universe, or provide consumers with the access to maintain it themselves.
There right you and i should just buy a new one
Of a diffrent brand
Yup, my Mikrotik router is doing great years after I bought it, and I expect to keep getting updates into the future. I used to use a LinkSys router w/ DD-WRT and later OpenWRT, and I think those are still supported to this day.
Yeah openwrt and ddrwrt are just perfection. I recently switched out my isp eero router for a gl.inet flint 2. Adgaurdhome and setting up services have been a dream! And i could actaully see what my devices where sending packets.
MY SAMSUNG TV WAS PINGING TIKTOK WTF. blocked everything on my smart tv minus netflix and amazon. Because samsung tv uses AWS for channels
Wow, that’s terrible. I still need to get around to blocking my smart TV as well, since we only use Netflix and our Jellyfin install on it. Thanks for a reminder. :)
Commodity hardware & open source software for the win.
When my Western Digital NAS was never going to get critical security patches, I was so freaking glad to find out that they just used software raid… I threw the HDDs in a Debian server and never looked back.
It’s certainly nice to have things that are turn-key, but if you can find your way around any OS, just avoid proprietary everything.
Can highly recommend ASUS, most of their models can be flashed with custom firmware that is supported beyond EOL. And their EOL cycle is also pretty long.
Seconded. I didn’t know the life cycle of a router but I replaced my asus router with another asus router recently. Not because it stopped working but because we have so many devices for our iot and I wanted some vlan. The old one is being repurposed at someone else’s house
Be nice if companies had to open source firmware they are going to EoL.
Be nice?
It must become.law. we want to lower e-waste? Yen if companies stop supporting their products, het must open source all of it
I mean, be nice if the US didn’t turn into a dictatorship in a few months. Don’t see any company-unfriendly laws going in effect there any time soon. But perhaps in Europe there’s still some chance of this happening.
Hopefully, but it’s easier to tell each company what they should do instead of giving them rules that they try to workaround. There are many examples.
A bunch of juvenile D-Linkuents. Get it? D-Link? Nevermind…
there should be list of companies that should be avoided and why, its impossible to keep track of everything like this
I moved to an OPNsense router a couple of years ago and I’ve never looked back. Hell is shitty consumer routers.
Do you have any recommendations on OPNSense routers?
Oh man, it’s a nightmare and I just happened to be lucky. I ended up buying one of those passively cooled router-esque N100 boxes out of China (AliExpress) and while it was a total punt it turned out to be a great experience, and their customer service was actually good too.
Kingdel was the make/vendor and it’s been rock solid.
