Not arguing for tp link routers. But I've had mine a couple years and still receive updates. Meanwhile they are behind an openwrt router and only serve as a mesh system.
I just tossed my Asus (Chinese made) router in the trash. Bought a Vietnamese made (US designed) mesh system. At this point, almost nothing Chinese made in the house!
so yes, any brand router is better then a isp router, but I'm dutch, so isp routers are already better then the average isp router in the USA. I'm planning on buying my own ubiquity 10gb firewall with a switch 10gb. because I have a 4gb connection. so my router is doing alright security wise, each year at least an update, monthly patches to the broad network. my isp runs its network as a secured vlan for private networks. so secirty patches are a level above the internet connection at our house.
American here - my ISP-provided router has 2x 10Gb LAN ports and 1x 10Gb WAN ports. It's a decent piece of hardware - for what I pay for it (it's bundled so I honestly don't know but imagine the rental is ~$5-10/month) I get a pretty good device with easy exchange at an ISP storefront.
I have an Tplink Archer AX55, about 3 years old - it's had ~5-10 firmware updates - so they definitely do do (tee hee) firmware updates. (Not advocating for TPLink, knowing that they have ties to the Chinese government makes me want to replace it). Regarding engineering issues - I'm not a networking hardware engineer, but in terms of specs the top-end TPLink Wifi7 router has significantly better features than the competing routers from Asus, Netgear, etc. eg the TPlink router has an SFP+ cage in it - allowing you to land fiber in the router itself. This is an extremely niche feature to be sure, but as someone who has a more robust home network and internet service setup this is a pretty impressive feature. Hypothetically, a custom-build server would be superior - but then you get to questions like is the PCIe bridge in your CPU's SOC robust enough to handle multi-10GbE adapters' worth of traffic? Maybe, maybe not (and FWIW I haven't run benchmarks on the TP-Link device) - but because TP link is likely just implementing MediaTek or Broadcom's WiFi7 chipset it's likely that chip is spec'd to switch that much traffic.
Same here with my TP-Link x68 mesh. It's been out since early 2021 and I got my last firmware update dated August 2024. I've updated 2 or 3 times since I bought it 13 months ago.
I consider any consumer grade router to be a danger. They get released and never get updated. They also don't last more than 3 years on average.
DD-WRT, Tomato, etc. won't help, since the hardware manufacturer will alwas have "gode mode" ( aka can override any settings in software).
Not arguing for tp link routers. But I've had mine a couple years and still receive updates. Meanwhile they are behind an openwrt router and only serve as a mesh system.
Lol these guys talking about using a hacked software to put on old hardware… okay guys real secure😂😂
Firewalla ftw.
I just tossed my Asus (Chinese made) router in the trash. Bought a Vietnamese made (US designed) mesh system. At this point, almost nothing Chinese made in the house!
so yes, any brand router is better then a isp router, but I'm dutch, so isp routers are already better then the average isp router in the USA. I'm planning on buying my own ubiquity 10gb firewall with a switch 10gb. because I have a 4gb connection. so my router is doing alright security wise, each year at least an update, monthly patches to the broad network. my isp runs its network as a secured vlan for private networks. so secirty patches are a level above the internet connection at our house.
American here - my ISP-provided router has 2x 10Gb LAN ports and 1x 10Gb WAN ports. It's a decent piece of hardware - for what I pay for it (it's bundled so I honestly don't know but imagine the rental is ~$5-10/month) I get a pretty good device with easy exchange at an ISP storefront.
You have no clue what you're talking about when it comes to American made routers.
I have an Tplink Archer AX55, about 3 years old - it's had ~5-10 firmware updates - so they definitely do do (tee hee) firmware updates.
(Not advocating for TPLink, knowing that they have ties to the Chinese government makes me want to replace it).
Regarding engineering issues - I'm not a networking hardware engineer, but in terms of specs the top-end TPLink Wifi7 router has significantly better features than the competing routers from Asus, Netgear, etc. eg the TPlink router has an SFP+ cage in it - allowing you to land fiber in the router itself. This is an extremely niche feature to be sure, but as someone who has a more robust home network and internet service setup this is a pretty impressive feature.
Hypothetically, a custom-build server would be superior - but then you get to questions like is the PCIe bridge in your CPU's SOC robust enough to handle multi-10GbE adapters' worth of traffic? Maybe, maybe not (and FWIW I haven't run benchmarks on the TP-Link device) - but because TP link is likely just implementing MediaTek or Broadcom's WiFi7 chipset it's likely that chip is spec'd to switch that much traffic.
Same here with my TP-Link x68 mesh. It's been out since early 2021 and I got my last firmware update dated August 2024. I've updated 2 or 3 times since I bought it 13 months ago.