Not really, because we only use Mikrotik for our leased/managed routers. Some WISPs only use Calex or Readynet. Or TP-Link or Cambium or Ubiquiti. But I would only want to be responsible for a small number of brands/models out there. If customer buys their own Belkin or Asus or Google Wifi or Eero or Orbi or whatever, it’s on them to maintain and manage them. Oh, and any managed CPE router, I would want to be remotely upgrading the firmware unless it can be set to auto update, because … security patches and bug fixes. Of course updates sometimes break stuff too.
Even if the hardware is still good, I consider most store-bought residential routers to have a useful life of 3-5 years, after that they are obsolete. Sorry, a perfectly functioning WRT54G is still e-waste. 10 years ago we didn’t have Facebook or video streaming or smartphones or IoT. Or web pages that open 100 TCP connections. Some old routers have small TCP connection tables causing strange problems that customers will interpret as sucky Internet. The other thing you’d need to track is certain brands/models are lemons. DLink EBR2310/WBR2310, DLink DIR-615, actually anything from DLink. Netgear WNR1000/2000 had high failure rate. They should not be redeployed. Up until 6-8 years ago we used to stock inexpensive “starter” routers in the install trucks and give them away to customers who hadn’t bought their own router. It was nothing but trouble. Customers didn’t say “cool, a free router”. They blamed us for every problem they ever had with that router for years and years, and they expected to get free replacement routers and upgrades. With 20/20 hindsight, I would only do that with a leased/managed router, and it would have to be more of a commercial or service provider router that is robust and has a long lifetime via firmware upgrades. So that leads me to Mikrotik or Calix or something along those lines. The problem of course with Mikrotik is they’re not very competitive with WiFi for FCC regions, plus many of their home routers are too expensive for the features and specs. If we had the volume, we would probably be going with Calix. The big carriers know to put their money into CAPEX and avoid OPEX. Of course they also have the volume to get really good prices on things like routers and modems. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Lewis Bergman Sent: Saturday, August 3, 2019 6:53 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Testing used customer wifi routers I think the cheap ass in you should take over and realize your right... It is cheaper to throw them away. Having said that, if you can't, resetting then to factory goes a long way to "fixing" a lot of those. In the long run it just seems those consumer level devices just don't last that long. If you are looking for a recycling project then default them and sell them on eBay. It will still cost you more than throwing them away but at least you won't feel bad about it. On Fri, Aug 2, 2019, 10:51 PM TJ Trout <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Does anyone have a testing regiment for Wi-Fi routers that have been returned from the field that are still serviceable? I have a huge pile and I'm scared to deploy them as the cost of an additional truck roll outweighs biting the bullet and giving each new subscriber a brand new router but the cheap ass in me can't throw these away so I was thinking that if I could somehow automate a testing setup and run them for a week or two I would feel more comfortable putting them back in the field... I'm talking about Netgear Linksys D-Link etc Or am I crazy -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
