Common security practices are to keep a router for as long as it’s receiving security patches. Once it’s EOL, then replace it.
I have a Gl.iNet router using the latest firmware that just released recently. However, the router is based on OpenWRT and is running v21.02 when the latest OpenWRT official version is 24.10.3. On OpenWRT’s website v21.02 is considered EOL.
So should this router be considered EOL? Should the whole company not be worth buying from since everything sold is immediately EOL? I don’t understand enough about cyber security to know how significant the jump is from v21.02 to v24.10.3.
PS. I know these routers can be flashed with straight OpenWRT but this is for the sake of my thought experiment.
The point I was trying to make is that End Of Life is in the eye of the beholder. Just because it doesn’t get any updates from the manufacturer, doesn’t mean that the user has to throw it away.
Similarly, a user can give the device to a second hand store and the next user can use it … and so on.
As I said, it is not a fixed date or concept.
generally yes. but we are talking about a public network facing device that is usually the first line of defense against wide Net.
that needs to be updated for new threats. those threats are not as extensive as 20 years ago (a lot of stuff are way better) but there are still bugs that appear in router as seen by news about routers hack that sometimes pop up.