indication lights on routers

What is it with router these days having less indication lights? Routers from providers like Plusnet have one light on the front and that is it and even routers from companies like TP-link only have a couple. My old TP link have a load of them, including lights to tell me an Ethernet connection is working. Seems to be going backwards.,

Yes, I’ve noticed the same thing - definitely a trend with several ISP provided routers (eg Virgin Media). I wonder why.

Edited by kam67 (Tue 27-Dec-22 02:09:11)

Hi,

IMHO, I think this is so that the router draws slightly less power. Every light requires a small draw on the mains. Newer routers are suppose to be more carbon neutral...

HTH,

In reply to a post by kam67:

Yes, I’ve noticed the same thing - definitely a trend with several ISP provided routers (eg Virgin Media). I wonder why.

Built to a price.

In reply to a post by mking90031:

Hi,

IMHO, I think this is so that the router draws slightly less power. Every light requires a small draw on the mains. Newer routers are suppose to be more carbon neutral...

HTH,

While I don't use BT routers, I would think the bloatware they stick in their routers will take more energy and that seems to be the trend with a of routers provided by ISPs these days, too much bloat and very little control available to the end user.

I had a Zyxel sent to me by Plusnet a while ago as their own hub did not work on my connection, i thought it was a normal Zyxel with its own firmware, but no, it looks like a normal Zyxel, but it has been modified, can't use the VoIP ports. Not that it matters now as the Zyxel died, which is why I am back with the old hub 2 at the moment.

I don't think it has anything to do saving energy, but more to do with giving the consumer less info, but according to BT and others, it makes the routers fit into a house decor instead of looking like an industrial thing.

It is not just routers from providers, even ones I have been looking at online to buy have limited LEDs, If say my TV stops connecting, I would just love to be able to look at the front of my router to see if the cable is still connected, i got to get new Ethernet cables, some of the ones I have got are old, so the clip is broken, and sometimes they To be honest I did think about going for a fibre network, but it is not worth it as I have nothing here that works beyond a 1Gbit Ethernet connection. I did think about connecting a USB NIC of 2.5Gbits to my nas and a new card in the computer, but I don't think it will be worth it,l also the network switches would have to be changed

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by kam67:

Yes, I’ve noticed the same thing - definitely a trend with several ISP provided routers (eg Virgin Media). I wonder why.

Built to a price.

But even the ones I can buy seems to be the same and some of them are pretty expensive

Consumers judge the performance of their internet service largely on whether the Wi-Fi reaches all over their house, routers that don't glow like the Las Vegas strip and don't look like an HR Giger sculpture are more likely to be positioned out in the open, helping achieve this Wi-Fi coverage goal.

It is simply marketing. People expect to see a fancy light piped glow of light like they are conditioned to see on their smart speakers rather than the more utilitarian harsh row of randomly flashing LEDs that would be more practical for troubleshooting. Now you have to try and work out if the glowing ring is orange or red, purple or blue, green or yellow, flashing twice in one second or three times a second then looking up the help guide to see what it means!

It has nothing to do with power consumption as the LEDs with a light pipe indicator will need to draw as much power or more power to illuminate the much larger area. Often the LEDs are over driven so they don't need so many (cheaper to make) and they dim over a few years as they burn out, but by then the ISP has sold you another contract with "our best ever Wi-Fi" router.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Consumers judge the performance of their internet service largely on whether the Wi-Fi reaches all over their house, routers that don't glow like the Las Vegas strip and don't look like an HR Giger sculpture are more likely to be positioned out in the open, helping achieve this Wi-Fi coverage goal.

I am not your average consumer, for a start I tend not to use Wi-Fi unless I really have to, Everything I can connect to Ethernet I do, even my printer which can run via Wi-fi as well I connect to Ethernet, not so much for speed as it is not needed even for a laser printer, but for reliability, I have had issues with wi-fi on printers before, so that is why when I went for a new printer, I got the middle model to get ethernet and duplex printing.
The only stuff I have on WIFI is my Echo dots, Blink cameras, doorbell camera and my switch bot hub, only because they can't be connected to ethernet sadly. Even so, most of these use 2.4Ghz Wi-fi whch in my opinion is far better than 5ghz. Oh my mobile phone and ereader use Wi-fi.

I found my old TPlink Wr1043 router, I am off work tomorrow, so I may put it back into action.

In reply to a post by E300:

It is simply marketing. People expect to see a fancy light piped glow of light like they are conditioned to see on their smart speakers rather than the more utilitarian harsh row of randomly flashing LEDs that would be more practical for troubleshooting. Now you have to try and work out if the glowing ring is orange or red, purple or blue, green or yellow, flashing twice in one second or three times a second then looking up the help guide to see what it means!

the problem is with all these colours, it don't help those of us who are colour blind, I can tell the difference between green and red if they are close to each other, but not separate.
i have to use colour tables when video editing to make sure I get the right colours

It has nothing to do with power consumption as the LEDs with a light pipe indicator will need to draw as much power or more power to illuminate the much larger area. Often the LEDs are over driven so they don't need so many (cheaper to make) and they dim over a few years as they burn out, but by then the ISP has sold you another contract with "our best ever Wi-Fi" router.

You are right about LEDs burning out, I know someone with an old BT hub and the LEDs have failed on that, which suits them as they are the opposite of me and hate LEDs. They are chaging over to Zzoomm soon so they will get a router from them. My old Tp link have ten LEDs on the front, I notice newer ones have a lot less.