"David E. Ross" wrote in message news

How long should a router last? Mine is over two years old. Twice
today, I had to reboot it in order to access any Web pages.


Other have answered how long. The question is - why did you have to reboot
it?

A voltage spike could have corrupted your firmware. Go to the manufacturers
site and download and install the latest firmware for that model.

You *should* do a factory reset before installing new firmware so be sure
you know what the manufactures default username, password and the IP address
so you can login.

Notice I said should but first try doing a firmware update without resetting
or doing a factory reset. Be sure to make a backup of your present settings
so they can be imported again if the firmware update blows away your
existing settings.

Then if that doesn't work, fallback to doing the factory reset, upload the
new firmware and then make any changes you need (username, password, SSID,
security settings) or try importing the old settings from the backup.

Strange as it may sound, some routers will not import settings that you made
a backup of after doing a firmware update. Asus routers are known for this
and a few models of LinkSys. They state it's due to security updates within
the firmware update that prevents importing saved settings so be prepared to
reenter them manually.


--


Bob S.