Why Do Wi-Fi Routers See A Decline In Performance Over Time?

As time passes by, technology changes. New products replace the older ones. We see every day new products being launched into the market to replace the older ones. As time passes by, tech products start to see a decline in their performance. The effectiveness decreases over time. One particular piece of tech that we are talking about today is Wi-Fi Routers. WiFi routers have to cope with a lot of wear and tear since they work all day and night without you turning them off or giving them a break. Can you remember the last time you turned off your Wi-Fi router and gave it a break?

Over time as routers are used, they start to lose some of their effectiveness in various ways. The main reason behind the degradation of WiFi routers is that they are not meant to last a lifetime and after years of constantly running, providing internet access, and transmitting signals, they start to face wear and tear. With that said, performance drops can occur with every device and you shouldn’t expect your WiFi router to last a lifetime. So, here are some reasons why Wi-Fi routers see a decline in performance over time:

WiFi Routers Keep Working Constantly
WiFi routers have to keep working constantly, all the time. When a device has to keep working for so long, it starts to see a decline in performance. Even if you start using your smartphone all the time, you will see that over time, its performance will start to decline. You will see the phone getting heated up too quickly, the battery health will fall down, and the phone will also start to lag.

As far as WiFi routers are concerned, constantly handling traffic and working all the time can generate heat that can cause damage to the hardware. Although this heat dissipation is not too much, it can cause problems for the routers if it is placed in an area where there is little ventilation for the router. Remember that heat dissipated is never good for the hardware of any tech device. (With a few exceptions, maybe?)

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Routers Have To Deal With Huge Amounts Of Data
As mentioned, WiFi routers have to deal with tremendous amounts of data. They carry a lot of data and power through their various components. If the load on the router’s components remains the same or increases, things can start to deteriorate over. This includes transmitters and capacitors in particular that could lose their functionality over a longer period, which can result in a decline in the router’s performance. However, routers from renowned manufacturers like TP-Link last for many years before you ever get to see a decline in performance, nevertheless, these are tech devices that are meant to last for a few years only.

Malware Infected Router
If your wireless network is not properly protected against cyber attacks and cyber threats, your router could become a victim of a cyber attack that can either mess with the router’s firmware or infect the router with malware that can slow down the internet speeds and performance of the router. Moreover, if your router becomes a victim of a cyber attack, it means that the data you are sharing across the network is also not secure.

This can be resolved by visiting the default gateway address of the route such as 192.168.8.1 and taking all the necessary precautionary measures. Sometimes, these things can have a significant impact on the performance of your wireless router.

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Dust Might Accumulate Inside The Router
Sometimes the decline in performance can be because of dust, debris, and other material that might accumulate inside the router and clog the internal components. Dust is known to be a killer for hardware and when the dust starts to accumulate inside your wireless router, you would start to see a drop in the stability of the connection, internet, speed, and overall performance of the router. You might get the feeling that your router is degrading but it is actually dust and debris that is slowly deteriorating the internal components of the router.

Too Many Devices Connected
It could be that your wireless router is perfectly fine along with all of its hardware and internal components but you have connected too many devices at once to the router which has caused this decline in performance. Every wireless router has a limit on the maximum number of devices it can connect before it sees a decline in performance. If you have connected too many devices at once to your wireless network, you will start to face connectivity and stability issues. This can be easily resolved by limiting the number of devices connected to the router at once.

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