Not just heating/ventilation but also the power supply. Random surges, brownouts, etc. can add stress to those components. I typically run my small electronics on a UPS: DSL router, wifi, VoIP ATA, etc. I've found that they tend to last longer even if I am not concerned about long battery run times, which I am typically not in my home network environment. If I get 10 minutes, that is fine by me, I just want the UPS to absorb most of the electrical fluctuations as much as possible. Funny heat related story (at least looking back it is funny now), I'd come across an install technician who installed DSL service but never peeled of the clear plastic sheet off the top of the DSL router, thereby leaving all of the ventilation holes on top completely sealed. Every single one of those he installed had failed within 6 months and needed to get replaced. The funny part comes in where I decided to read the "Quick Start Guide" PDF that comes with the router, there are like 3 basic steps listed with an extremely eye-catching WARNING at the top that specifically says to peel off the plastic sheet prior to first use. FAIL! On 09.05.2014 15:54, Mike Miller wrote: > On Thu, 8 May 2014, paul g wrote: > >> Some years ago when I bought my wireless router the salesperson told me they wear out after some time. Could I get your knowledge and opinions on this? > > Well, "wear out" sounds like a tire or a pair of jeans -- like the quality > degrades over time -- but I doubt routers work that way. > > On the other hand, I think what Tony was saying is that the probability of > immediate failure might be increasing as time passes. > > I wouldn't buy a new one unless my old one had failed. > > Mike > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list [1] Links: ------ [1] http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20140509/f3fd1d5e/attachment.html>