Question: Are we trading security for sustainability when we junk old routers?

Tossing functional devices for updates seems wasteful but necessary for safety.

4 comments

4 Comments

But how often do these old routers actually get hacked? Feels like the risk gets talked up way more than what happens in real life. Mostly just makes you buy new stuff.

aaronw591mo ago

What about turning it into a basic access point? I kept my old one for that, works fine and cuts down on tossing it.

matthew_west15d ago

Except that old access point is still a security hole if it's not getting updates. You're just moving the problem, not fixing it.

wyattramirez1mo ago

But doesn't that depend on if the old router supports access point mode? Some older models might not have that feature built in.