Netgear is shocking equipment as far as I am concerned. I'd never recommend it to anyone. In that range, Linksys is a much much safer bet.

Yes 3 years of solid use, now it's had 3 years barely being used.
If it was kept in use it probably would have broken by the 4th year I reckon.

Routers never last long for me however I have 6 people using the connection here, with 6 laptops, all have phones, wireless printers, iPads, Sky box and then my neighbours (a 5 bedroom student house) chip in and share now. So I have at minimum around 13 devices connected but often above 20.

Using bog standard Sky router (does the job better than anything else I tried).

If there's only one or two devices using the device the time probably is far higher.

the MTTF is indeed a statistic, and things do indeed fail, but solid state electronics doesn't wear out in the sense of physical decay and finding a pile of iron filings or plastic debris under the offending part. It's simply the wrong word.

I'm always amused when I tell someone that something has failed and their response is "but it was working yesterday" to which I reply "that's what failure means, it was working and now it isn't".

Analogue versus digital versions of failure, is that in the analogue world it usually still worked to some extent before dying totally.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

Good grief!

My previous Netgear DG834 which is now 6 years old and still working as a diagnostic spare for friends must be well into pensionable age by now then. And my DG834GT, bought as I needed wireless, is well over 3 years old so must be well past middle age.

Netgear have served me well and, unless something happens to change my mind, will be my make of choice as and when I seek a replacement.

The router that had "worn out" was a D-link - don't know the model.

Same here - I too had two DG834GTs running for 5 years plus without issue.

I have to say all of the netgear routers I've had seem to run warm.

The Billion I'm now using is warm to the touch over one part but does appear to be better ventilated.