Get rid of your disposable router

I remember when a WRT54G was considered a “good” router. Of course, it was better if you loaded a more capable, 3rd-party firmware. To counter, Linksys stripped the 54G to a shell of its former self, and made the 54GL available to anyone that wanted a device that more resembled the 54G’s of old. Sure, there have been other routers since that allow 3rd-party firmware to be loaded, but the de-contenting of the 54G marked the start of the age of the disposable router.

Don’t get me wrong, most routers before that time were disposable, too.

However, since then, almost every consumer router has had just enough CPU, memory, and storage to meet its performance targets. Line speed routing? Sure. Line speed SPI or VPN? Probably not.

I guess the upside is that we have a ton of routers in the $30 to $150 market space. If I told you that these routers were disposable, you’d probably not fight me too much on it. But what about something like the ASUS ROG Rapture WiFi 6E Gaming Router (GT-AXE16000)? It has two 10G ports, and one 2.5G port!

Impressive, to be sure.

Behold, the ASUS ROG Rapture (GT-AXE16000)

It’s also keeping with the trend of expensive wireless routes looking like facehuggers from Aliens.

Uncanny, no?

Despite having a dedicated 5 gigahertz backhaul for mesh networking (a must-have, in my opinion, if using wireless mesh), this router is entirely disposable. Asus is better than most, in providing product updates, but you still have a pretty limited time in which to amortize your $530 expense.

If that’s a best-case example, just understand that most routers are worse. Sparse or nonexistent product support, on what’s likely the most targeted part of your network. The recent TP-Link allegations are really only the cherry on this crap sandwich.

Are you at risk? Find out here in my latest video.