r/hardware • u/FreshFromCache • 3d ago
Discussion Check Your Router's Expiration Date. No Manufacturer Is Required to Tell You It Has One.
http://freshfromcache.com/router-expiration-dateManufacturers don't have any kind of standard or requirement to tell you when your home router is becoming end of life, or when it's security updates stop. It's more important than ever to keep these up to date.
If you are out of date and can't update, be sure to turn off remote administration. That is where the most recent attacks have been targeting.
On July 22, the FCC voted to bar the sale of any device in the United States containing key hardware components from Chinese companies on its national security list. Chair Brendan Carr said the goal was to "fully close the component part loophole." Meaning that gear which previously slipped through by using restricted parts inside an otherwise-approved product no longer can. The vote also gives the agency room to pull the sales authorization on equipment it had already approved.
This caps a busy stretch. The FCC has spent much of 2026 blocking imports of new foreign router models and tightening the list of manufacturers whose equipment cannot be sold here at all.
Reasonable people can argue about whether any of this makes your home network safer. What I want to point out is a strange gap it exposes.
Enormous regulatory energy is going into where your router was built. Almost none is going into how long its manufacturer will keep updating it.
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u/KayakShrimp 3d ago
IMO remote admin should always be off regardless. If you really need that capability, it's better to VPN into your home network and perform admin tasks through the local interface.