Is my router too old? Four signs it's time to change
Old routers don't stop working — they quietly stop being safe and stop keeping up. Here are the four signs worth checking today.
Updated 5 August 2026 · about 5 minutes to read
Routers rarely fail outright. They sit in the hallway doing their job for years while the world moves on around them. The risk is not that yours will die — it is that it stops receiving security updates while still happily connecting your bank app to the internet.
Sign 1: the manufacturer has stopped supporting it
Every router has an end-of-support date, after which no more security fixes are released. Once that date passes, any newly discovered flaw stays open forever. This is the single most important thing to check, and it has nothing to do with how fast the router feels.
Sign 2: it only offers 2.4GHz
If your router only broadcasts one network and never mentions 5GHz, it predates roughly 2014. The 2.4GHz band travels further but is slower and far more crowded — it shares space with microwaves, baby monitors and every neighbour on your street.
Sign 3: it needs restarting to behave
A router you restart weekly is a router telling you something. Occasionally it is overheating; more often it is ageing hardware running out of memory as the number of connected devices in the average home has quietly tripled.
Sign 4: you have never changed the admin password
This is fixable in five minutes and worth doing regardless of the router's age. The admin password is the one that lets someone change your settings — it is not the same as your Wi-Fi password, and on older routers it is often printed on a sticker or set to something guessable.
In short
- ✓ End-of-support date matters more than speed or age in years.
- ✓ 2.4GHz-only means the router is roughly a decade old.
- ✓ Change the admin password today, whatever you decide about replacing it.