When to replace a router

[Hurriken]

I have an old router. It's a D-link DIR-625. Lately it seems like browsing on my laptop and tablet have been sluggish. Could it be wearing out or has technology passed it by? I'm wondering if I should replace it.

 

[cliffordcooley]

There are numerous other things that could effect Internet traffic. Of the most common in my area is bad service from ISP (bad lines or equipment).

Resetting your router could help if it is the router causing the issue. Simply unplugging it is not enough to do a full reset of all settings.

What does running http://www.speedtest.net/ state your connection rate is and does it match what you are paying for?

 

[DelJo63]

I've had my Netgear for Y E A Rs and it's just fine. There's tons of reasons for degraded Internet performance and seldom is it due to the router.

The list of suspects imo are:

1. browser addons
2. too many services consuming memory
3. ISP throttling of some protocols and/or servers

and then too, access to gaming sites is highly variable and dependent upon the loading of the game server itself.

 

[Hurriken]

I bought my wife the tablet to make things easier for her(and myself) and she is always complaining about it hanging up or running slow. My laptop seems to struggle at the beginning of downloads and runs much better from my WiFi hotspot. My PC which is hard wired and runs great.

PC: ping 11 DL: 54.97mbps UL: 8.95mbps
Laptop: Ping15 DL: 18.73mbps UL: 16.07mbps
Tablet: DL: 8.58mbps UL: 12.46mbps

 

[TheHawk]

Hey Hurriken. How does the laptop run when offline doing other things like Word, transfering files,etc. Is your router secured (password required to access your Internet connection)?. As mentioned, a ton of things could cause a slow running pc, just trying to narrow down if it's slow when only connected to the Net, or slow in general.Tried different browsers or clearing out temp/junk and browser cache files?

 

[SNGX1275]

PC: ping 11 DL: 54.97mbps UL: 8.95mbps
Laptop: Ping15 DL: 18.73mbps UL: 16.07mbps
Tablet: DL: 8.58mbps UL: 12.46mbps

Some observations:
1. The pings are good.
2. The results are wildly variable, that is not normal.
3. None of those speeds should cause any 'sluggish' feel. 8 down is getting close, maybe some would argue you can notice that on certain webpages and I wouldn't put up much of a fight, but it should be pretty minimal to unnoticable on a vast majority of websites.

I don't have any answers for you, all of those speeds are still well below what the router is capable of providing, and routers should be kind of an all or nothing thing, they don't age and get slower.

TheHawk may be on to something with checking your wireless is secured. Check out the DHCP client list for your router to make sure nothing is connected that you aren't aware of.