Just realized my old router was a security risk after a chat with a friend

I was talking to my buddy Dave last week, he works in IT over in Phoenix. He asked when I last updated my router's firmware, and I honestly couldn't remember. Turns out my old Netgear from 2019 had a known vulnerability that wasn't patched anymore. He showed me how to check the manufacturer's support page for end-of-life dates. Now I'm looking at replacing it with something that still gets updates, maybe a budget TP-Link. Has anyone else had an old router suddenly stop getting security patches?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra69314d ago

Did your friend mention that some ISPs actually provide free routers now? I switched to a modem-only setup last year and it was way smoother than I expected, no more chasing firmware updates on my own. Just make sure whatever you get supports the latest Wi-Fi standard, my old one was stuck on Wi-Fi 5 and it caused all kinds of weird dropouts.

gonzalez.rowan14d agoMost Upvoted

I actually did the same thing last year with Xfinity. Their rental fee was like $15 a month so I bought my own modem and router from Best Buy for around $150 and it paid for itself in less than a year. I got a Netgear CM600 for the modem and a TP-Link AX1800 for wifi, never had a dropout since. The wifi 6 support really made a difference for my gaming setup, my old wifi 5 router used to stutter every time someone started streaming.