Why you will be replacing your perfectly good Router in 3-5 years

#1 · October 17, 2022, 2:14 pm

Quote from glen on October 17, 2022, 2:14 pm
I almost titled this article: "Profit-driven monetization of customers creates needless environmental waste", but you be the judge.

I purchased a Google Nest Mesh Wifi Router 2-3 years ago. This week, I needed to reconfigure it, and began having problems with slowness/instability of the app that controls it (Google Home). Out of frustration (after hours of research and trying different approaches to make it work), I began looking at competing products.

Before spending money, I set up an old (7 years?) Asus router to do the job (minus the Mesh), and I had it working in 5 minutes, using the built-in administration web page on the router itself. I began looking for routers with capable administration pages in addition to, or instead of, over-simplified mobile apps.

It wasn't perfectly clear which products used Apps vs administrative web pages until I came upon this great article "Router Management: Web Interface vs App and Popular Vendors’ Sad New Trend"

From this article, I now understand the industry trend. Here's my notes on what administrative tool most manufacturers provide for managing routers:

Ubiquiti - only mobile apps

Netgear: capable web admin page, but using feature-kill to phase it out

Eero (Amazon): only mobile app (not supported after 5 years)

TP-Link: going to mobile app

Google: only mobile

Linksys: only mobile (driving users away from web admin)

Asus: continues to offer a very capable web admin page

When the mobile App stops working, and you switch phones and find the App isn't on the Play Store, or isn't compatible with your new phone, your mobile-app-only router is junk. And I suspect that will happen sooner than 5 years, because that clock might start ticking from the day of market introduction.

Much as I would like to buy the Eero 6+, Netgear Orbi RBK850, or Ubiquiti Alien - it's not happening, because I want a router that I can use for more than 3-4 years. I want my money to buy a good, durable tool - not something that ends up in the landfill before I'm done with it! Isn't that called "planned obsolescence" ?

I almost titled this article: "Profit-driven monetization of customers creates needless environmental waste", but you be the judge.

I purchased a Google Nest Mesh Wifi Router 2-3 years ago. This week, I needed to reconfigure it, and began having problems with slowness/instability of the app that controls it (Google Home). Out of frustration (after hours of research and trying different approaches to make it work), I began looking at competing products.

Before spending money, I set up an old (7 years?) Asus router to do the job (minus the Mesh), and I had it working in 5 minutes, using the built-in administration web page on the router itself. I began looking for routers with capable administration pages in addition to, or instead of, over-simplified mobile apps.

It wasn't perfectly clear which products used Apps vs administrative web pages until I came upon this great article "Router Management: Web Interface vs App and Popular Vendors’ Sad New Trend"

From this article, I now understand the industry trend. Here's my notes on what administrative tool most manufacturers provide for managing routers:

Ubiquiti - only mobile apps
Netgear: capable web admin page, but using feature-kill to phase it out
Eero (Amazon): only mobile app (not supported after 5 years)
TP-Link: going to mobile app
Google: only mobile
Linksys: only mobile (driving users away from web admin)
Asus: continues to offer a very capable web admin page

When the mobile App stops working, and you switch phones and find the App isn't on the Play Store, or isn't compatible with your new phone, your mobile-app-only router is junk. And I suspect that will happen sooner than 5 years, because that clock might start ticking from the day of market introduction.

Much as I would like to buy the Eero 6+, Netgear Orbi RBK850, or Ubiquiti Alien - it's not happening, because I want a router that I can use for more than 3-4 years. I want my money to buy a good, durable tool - not something that ends up in the landfill before I'm done with it! Isn't that called "planned obsolescence" ?