I just noticed that my wireless router, although not malfunctioning, is extremely old. It’s a D-Link DI-524 Wireless 54 Mbps 2.4GHz 802.11g model, which is nearly ten years old now. I noticed this because the other day I checked its internal logs and saw that they had the wrong date. When I went to set it I found that the year field is a hard-coded range and you can only select up to 2012! Not that the date really matters, but there are other issues like it only has WPA-2 (not WEP) encryption (has no hard-coded password, you have to set it).
Considering how cheap they are would it be worthwhile to buy a new one? Are they more powerful, i.e. better wireless range & though-put? I live in the country and am not overly concerned about wireless security (I do use a WPA-2 password) but I do notice that my iPhone doesn’t always get the strongest WiFi signal.
Unless you’ve got new devices that can use the 802.11n protocol, there’s really no reason to upgrade. Not having WEP isn’t a problem, as WPA is more secure anyway. As long as it still works, there’s no reason to replace it.
I just had to get a new one myself, because of an Android update that wouldn’t let my or my wife’s phone connect to the Wi-Fi.
Ok, near as I can tell my iPhone 5 does support 5GHz 802.11n so it might be worth it for that. I say ‘near as I can tell’ because the Apple site won’t currently show any info for the 5, it insists on constantly pimping the 5s & 5c instead!
The bottleneck in your internet speed is almost surely your ISP connection, not your wireless router. Unless you have 20mbps+ service, I don’t think it’s going to make a major speed difference (unless you’re doing a lot of transfers within your home network). WPA2 is newer and better than WEP, so I don’t think you should be concerned about that. 5ghz can be advantageous, but it also tends to have much less range, especially through walls, so it might actually be a downgrade for you.
Most consumer wireless routers are so poorly-made that I’m kind of shocked yours is still working after 10 years, but if it is, I don’t think its necessarily worth spending money to upgrade.
Hm, didn’t WPA2 only originate in 2004? At any rate, if that’s the encryption standard your router uses, then it’s absolutely current in that respect; WPA succeeded WEP (which turned out to be insecure), and was itself succeeded by WPA2.
In my experience N type routers do tend to have better signal penetration and coverage even with working with older G compatible devices. If you have signal issues an N router can be a useful upgrade.
If it has WPA2, it’s had a firmware upgrade since you bought it so in practical terms it’s not “10 years old”, it’s “whatever the last firmware upgrade was years old”.
I say if it’s working, and you’re happy with it, and it’s not bottlenecking your network, might as well keep it running.
If you rely on it for your livelihood, maybe buy a replacement and keep it in a closet so you’ll have it available when you need it. In the same way I keep a replacement keyboard and mouse tucked away just in case, since if they broke I wouldn’t want to sacrifice half the day running to an electronics store.
Yes, I did upgrade its firmware a while back, I think it’s dated 2006 (so it’s still seven years old). I always get WEP and WPA mixed up as to which is better. The only real issue that happens is after using my iPhone for a while it will suddenly lose WiFi connectivity. My PC will still connect fine, but the only way to fix the iPhone is to reboot it (off & on), then it comes back every time. Never does this at any other WiFi hotspot, just my home.
802.11n is being replaced by the faster and better range 802.11ac so you might as well wait if you can. You can already buy 802.11ac routers even though the standard hasn’t been finalized but almost no devices have built-in connectivity for them and even external dongles are hard to find. That should change quickly in the next year or so.
Ha, that’s relevant. I just got a new router because my DI-524 died. It would constantly lose connection so I got a new one. This was whether wired or wireless. It does have WPA-2. I will say I didn’t notice a major speed increase, although maybe I don’t have any devices that tax it.
Well, I won’t be upping to an iPhone (6?) for at least 18 months from now but I’ll keep that in mind.
Can anyone **absolutely **verify that the iPhone 5 (not the 5s) supports the 5GHz 802.11n protocol? I wasn’t kidding when I said there’s nothing on Apple’s site about the original 5 anymore. Even though the 4s is still available the plain 5 isn’t! (just the 5s & 5c).
FYI, I’m not familiar with 802.11ac, but 802.11n, properly implemented, involves two antennas for diversity purposes. That’s why you get better reception.
I have found that old routers often don’t keep up with the speed advances in cable. And it’s hard to find specs to verify that; max speeds are typically not published or even admitted to by the manufacturer. Sometimes you just have to guess that it’s the router holding you back if you have boosted everything else in the chain and your throughput doesn’t improve.
802.11ac is usefull if you live in a very crowded (wifi-wise) area. 5 Ghz has crappy range and even worse penetration through buildings. The only problem it solves is in overcrowded areas.
(ac = n + 5 Ghz) obviously you need devices with a 5 Ghz antenna to take advantage.
802.11n is usefull if your household has many wifi devices, n stacks several g connections.
When used with only one device the benefit is minimal.
(n = n*g) you need a 802.11g devices to take advantage and -n devices have better speed
802.11g is a vast improvement over -a and -b.
If you don’t have many (>2) devices surfing the web in your household and do not live in an appartmentcomplex with 10+ visible networks you already have the fastest router.
If you like to stream video over your wifi-network you would already have upgraded.
Just a quick followup to my OP. I bought a new Belkin N450DB 5GHz router. Long story short it doesn’t seem noticeably faster, and before & after speed tests verify that. But so far my iPhone hasn’t lost connectivity like it used to with my old D-Link router so it seems to have fixed that. Plus it was only $40 and I hooked up my old router at a friend’s house who didn’t have (or really need :)) wifi so overall it was worth it.