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Why Do We Have To Restart Routers?

Posted by kdawson on from the buildup-of-bogons dept.

jaypaulw writes "I've owned a WRT54G, some cheap D-Link home Wi-Fi/firewall/routers, and now an Apple Airport Extreme (100/10 ethernet ports). In the context of the discussion about the worst uses of Windows — installation in places where an embedded device is superior — I've gotten to wondering why it's necessary to reboot these devices so frequently, like every few days. It seems like routers, purpose-built with an embedded OS, should be the most stable devices on my network."

18 of 936 comments (clear)

  1. The most likely reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're doing it wrong.

    1. Re:The most likely reason by pablomme · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, I've never had a problem with my rou

      --
      The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
    2. Re:The most likely reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mine never used to need re-booting until I added a Vista Laptop to the network???

    3. Re:The most likely reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      How'd you submit that?

    4. Re:The most likely reason by ajlitt · · Score: 2, Funny

      It took me 9 years of being a broadband customer to realize that the "NO CARRIER" meme is irrelevant. Thank you.

    5. Re:The most likely reason by pablomme · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh, very simple: I have a fr

      --
      The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
    6. Re:The most likely reason by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 3, Funny
      this is also a pet peeve of mine. Folks saying NO CARRIER or such nonsense, where there is obviously a submit needed to complete the comment.

      .
      Yeah! And nobody *really* knows why the chicken crossed the road, or why fruit flies like a banana. What's the matter with these people?

    7. Re:The most likely reason by Plutonite · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, I've never had a problem with my rou

      You know what, those jokes are fucking la

    8. Re:The most likely reason by Provocateur · · Score: 2, Funny

      Usually to set the password for 'admin'

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    9. Re:The most likely reason by TapeCutter · · Score: 2, Funny

      "I can't understand why, what I like to call, "the grandma scenario" is constantly being brought up here"

      Grandma owns the basement and pays the bills.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    10. Re:The most likely reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      It may have something to do with horoscopes as well. My aunt Mabel knows several people in her trailer park who had routers who had tons of problems, and they were all Pisces. Hmm. Now I don't know anything about any of this, but when they're owned by Geminis, especially ones not married to Capricorns they seem to work a bit better.

    11. Re:The most likely reason by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

      I tried to mod you up, but my connection timed o

  2. USR8054 by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Funny

    US Robotics 8054 (USR8054). At least it has the decency to reset itself though throughout the day. Saves some manual labor I suppose.

  3. Re:I'll tell you why ... by Alibaba10100 · · Score: 2, Funny

    And he's just one guy, you'd think a company with the resources of Linksys could do an even better job.

    Unless he holds meetings with himself and forms committees of himself, I'd say hes got at least one advantage.

  4. Re:rebooting routers? by Dan541 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It could also be possible that the firmware allows no changes at all to the running configuration, forcing a restart for any change made in an attempt at making it less hackable.

    That's just stupid.

    Honestly, who sacrifices convinience for security?

    --
    An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
  5. Re:It shouldn't be... by Drgnkght · · Score: 2, Funny

    All it did was run an FTP server for years.

    LOL, sorry but I have to ask. Did you install it?

  6. Re:Ironic Connection Sharing by toddestan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just use a cheap Pentium 2 running Windows XP with Internet Connection Sharing. Disabled the automatic updates and firewalled it properly over 18 months ago, and haven't had to touch the machine since.

    In which case, this article is for you:
    http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/11/003251

  7. Re:I hope this explains a few things. by Jellybob · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I had modpoints, you could have them all for that.