Appreciation post: That old router that finally fried after 8 years

I had this Netgear router from like 2016 that just kept chugging along. Not the fastest thing, but it worked. Last week I went to check why my security camera feed was cutting out and touched the side of it and nearly burned my finger off. The thing was hot to the point where the plastic was starting to warp. I figure it's been slowly cooking itself for months. Now I'm wondering how much data was getting dropped or if someone could have snuck into it without me knowing. Has anyone else had a piece of gear just fail in a scary way like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

simonl1121d ago

Honestly, that "plastic was starting to warp" line got me. I had an old Asus router that one day just started melting the ethernet port, like the plastic was literally dripping.

betty_palmer21d ago

And what finally worked for me was drilling out the port and just hardwiring the ethernet cable directly to the board (I know, not for everyone). I used a little epoxy to hold it in place and it ran like that for another two years before I finally upgraded. Sometimes you just gotta MacGyver it when the plastic literally melts around you.