Be nice if companies had to open source firmware they are going to EoL.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Not going to hold my breath that anything like this will happen in the current political climate, but yeah, that should be mandatory. Even ignoring the exploitive nature towards their customers, it creates a ton of unnecessary waste.
Long ago, D-Link was good but then they sold the company. Just like Alienware, Farbreware, Oaklies, etc.
The DSR-150 is still being sold on Amazon under the D-Link store. Why the hell would you end of life something you still sell.
Technically most if not all Amazon sellers are third party who sell to the warehouse and then it sits there until its listing contract expires.
Thats why Rode Microphone refuses to sell on Amazon.
Can highly recommend ASUS, most of their models can be flashed with custom firmware that is supported beyond EOL. And their EOL cycle is also pretty long.
I mean this is pretty standard in all industries regardless of whether it's a software flaw or a physical flaw in any other kind of product. What's the likelihood of a vacuum manufacturer replacing a part in a 15 year old product that had a 1 year warrantee even if it's a safety issue? Sure the delivery and installation is cheaper with software, but the engineering and development isn't, especially if the environment for building it has to be recreated.
What you're saying is perfectly reasonable, but also doesn't apply here because they're still selling this router new on the D-link Amazon store.
If you're going to stop supporting a product, you should also stop selling it.
As far as I can tell, those aren't from authorized resellers or even from Amazon itself which they might have some ability to stop selling them. These are just people who are using amazon marketplace to sell off old stock like any other product. D-link hasn't sold them for a while. But I could be wrong, I just haven't seen any evidence that they are selling them. If Bissel had a vacuum that had a faulty gear that would break after a few years of use and they stopped making them, that wouldn't stop someone from buying them up from Walmart or other store warehouses that no longer sold them and listing them for sale on Amazon or Walmart or whatever marketplace. That's very common.
This is why a number of countries have laws saying spare parts must be made available for a number of years past being sold. Well beyond what the warranty is.
How is this significantly different?
I'd also settle for releasing 3D models of out-of-production parts so they can be 3D-printed by enthusiasts.
Story time: in my second-gen Mazda Miata, I closed the centre console lid on a piece of cardstock by accident and it snapped the plastic piece that latches the lid shut. The part previously sold for ~$10 but they stopped producing it as a standalone part at some point and the only way to acquire it was to buy the $100 centre console lid assembly.
This isn't spare parts. This is asking for a new part to be designed and manufactured to replace an existing part. That takes time and money. Granted software doesn't require mass production, but creating the initial version does take expertise and resources that may no longer exist in addition to the time and money.
I work for a manufacturer with part catalogues going back to 1921, and while the telegraph codes no longer work, you could absolutely still order up a given part, or request from us the engineering diagram for it to aid in fabricating a replacement. You can also request service manuals, wiring diagrams, etc. Don't all half-decent manufacturers do this?
That's assuming you're looking for a replacement part. This is redesigning the product to work differently to fix a flaw. Like if you made a vacuum company use a different gear because the existing one was too fragile. That's likely not something you can just swap out. First you need an engineer to decide what kind of gear and redesign everything around it to make the gear fit properly as well as creating a way for it to be easily installed by the end user or their repair service. You're ultimately changing the functionality of the original product. Yes it's flawed functionality, but there are tons of flawed products out there.
Yes they do, but half decent manufacturers are extremely rare.
Don't all half-decent manufacturers do this?
No. That is phenomenally uncommon. To the point it's almost unheard of.
Now I wish you'd tell us what the company is so if I ever need anything in that industry, I'd know where to buy from.
There right you and i should just buy a new one
Of a diffrent brand
Had me in the first half
Our shit sucks. Buy more lol
I mean, some of those EOLed nearly a decade ago.
You can argue over what a reasonable EOL is, but all hardware is going to EOL at some point, and at that point, it isn't going to keep getting updates.
Throw enough money at a vendor, and I'm sure that you can get extended support contracts that will keep it going for however long people are willing to keep chucking money at a vendor -- some businesses pay for support on truly ancient hardware -- but this is a consumer broadband router. It's unlikely to make a lot of sense to do so on this -- the hardware isn't worth much, nor is it going to be terribly expensive to replace, and especially if you're using the wireless functionality, you probably want support for newer WiFi standards anyway that updated hardware will bring.
I do think that there's maybe a good argument that EOLing hardware should be handled in a better way. Like, maybe hardware should ship with an EOL sticker, so that someone can glance at hardware and see if it's "expired". Or maybe network hardware should have some sort of way of reporting EOL in response to a network query, so that someone can audit a network for EOLed hardware.
But EOLing hardware is gonna happen.
EoL of anything should mean open source code. You don't want to open source your code? Then you must keep servicing your products and must keep your servers up
The ones with EOL 2015, fair play. But May 2024 isn't all that long ago.
Edit: Looks like those were launched in early 2015. I guess requesting users to update devices after 8+ years might not be too far fetched.
all hardware is going to EOL at some point, and at that point, it isn't going to keep getting updates
EOLing hardware should be handled in a better way
Both of these are solved by one thing: open platforms. If I can flash OpenWRT on to an older router then it becomes useful again.
Bingo.
Either support the device until the heat death of the universe, or provide consumers with the access to maintain it themselves.
But neither of those help corporations make them all the money. So we need regulation to force them to.
Regulation? I think you mean "guillotines"...
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I think there should be a handoff procedure, or whatever you want to call it.
As EOL approaches, work with whatever open router OS maker is available (currently OpenWRT) to make sure it's supported, and configs migrate over nicely. Then drop one last update, designed to do a full OS replacement.
Boom, handoff complete.
I’d support a regulation that defines either an expiration date or commitment to open source at the time the hardware is sold.
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I agree. Buy a new router that isn't Dlink.
Yeah after gettin screwed by the DLink you might as well use the TP-Link
Welp never buying anything D-Link ever again
I had a couple of dlink gigabit desktop switches. Two failed so far, one has taken down the whole network, not just devices directly connected to it, and the other one fried 2 router ports when it died. I learned my lessons about buying crappy network hardware.
Edit: that happened within a few months, so these switches also have a very clear EOL.
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Why do they say they’re prohibited to provide support? That a bad translation?
I moved to an OPNsense router a couple of years ago and I’ve never looked back. Hell is shitty consumer routers.
This is the way.
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