Newer Firmware vs. Older Firmware in separate Routers

[Satyajit Mishra]

For the above scenario consider these two routers; Netgear R6220 & Archer C5 v2.
To the best of my knowledge both of these router are somewhat similarly specced. The R6220 was released on 1st Januray 2017 & the Archer C5 was released on 19th June 2014. The R6220's latest firmware was released on 31st July 2017 & the Archer C5's latest firmware was released on 29th January 2016. As you can see, the Archer C5's last firmware upgrade was almost a year & half older than the R6220's last firmware upgrade.

So here are my questions;
1. Is a router with newer firmware better than a router with older firmware?
2. Or does a router with older firmware means that the router is more stable than a router with newer firmware?
3. Or does a router with newer firmware means that it is still under development whereas the router with older firmware is no longer under development/abandoned (development-wise)?
4. If a router hasn't received a firmware upgrade in a long time does it means that it is stable & doesn't require any further upgrades or is it no longer under development/abandoned?

I know that any answer to my 1st question will not be definitive. But please do answer according to yours personal experience not opinion. Please answer my 2nd, 3rd & 4th question considering the Archer C5's last firmware upgrade.

If any of you have personal experience with either of these routers, please do share.

 

[The Paladin]

1. trick question; is a newer firmware better at functionality of hardware of the said router, no, is it more secure then an older firmware, perhaps.
2. again, the answer would be no. my old N900 is very stable, my AC3200 had to get 4 updates before it was... newer technology often have buggy firmware's.
3. again, the answer is no (yes It may sound like I am contradicting myself but I am not) newer router depending on the make and model will have updated firmware often "optimizing" not "repairing or fixing" the software running the hardware.
4. yes and no, it may mean the could not get the firmware to do anything better with the current hard ware and you will see another model pop up close to its development meaning they started a project and the main board got an upgrade mid project and generated a new product.
N600, N900 was a good example of this ...

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

Oh my god this is a disaster, now I'm more confused than before. But let me wrap my head around this; the only way to know if a newer/older firmware is better/worse, is to check the change logs/release notes of all the firmware upgrades that were ever released for these particular models, right...?

 

[4745454b]

But please do answer according to yours personal experience not opinion.

You are way overthinking things. They aren't the same device, so of course the firmware will be different. Get a device you like and supports what you need, update the firmware to remove known bug/issue/security holes, be happy. Overthinking things like this is just pointless.

 

[USAFRet]

2 different devices, 2 different manufacturers.
You can't compare them directly, just by looking at the firmware version and date.

 

[4745454b]

Exactly. Car company A has a 2.0L engine, and company B has a 2.1L engine. Which engine is "better"? They might be similar, but the car they go into will make a difference as well. I've never suggested someone buy X over Y because the firmware is newer.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

But please do answer according to yours personal experience not opinion.

You are way overthinking things. They aren't the same device, so of course the firmware will be different. Get a device you like and supports what you need, update the firmware to remove known bug/issue/security holes, be happy. Overthinking things like this is just pointless.

I get what you are saying, but I'm pressing this so much because I really want to know how much does a firmware matters in a router. Actually as both of these router are similarly specced, both of them support my needs. I started questioning this because I currently have a Netgear DGN2200 Modem Router which is almost 6 years old & it still got a firmware upgrade on 26th April 2017. But there were a lot of TP-Link Modem Routers which were similarly specced & were release during 2015. But the last firmware upgrade that they got was on 2016. So if two routers are similarly specced & can satisfy my need, can one of them be better than the other if one of them gets up-to-date firmware upgrades whereas the other one doesn't. I mean if we consider that firmware can improve security of a router, is it not wise to choose a newer firmware over an older one? Especially considering how many new online threats have been poping up...? JUST A THOUGHT

 

[4745454b]

I mean if we consider that firmware can improve security of a router, is it not wise to choose a newer firmware over an older one?

Not all routers have the same security holes though. Company A might have used a flaw in the firmware that allows remote access. Company B might not have that flaw, so no reason to patch. I think Dlink or maybe netgear had this issue a few years ago. I think my very old Dlink 604 router had this issue. (so long ago there's no wifi on that router.) Just because that Dlink needs to have it's firmware upgraded doesn't mean it's "better" than a router that doesn't have an update, it just means that other company did it right the first time.

Again, you are over thinking this. Make sure the firmware is updated. But don't lose sleep over which is "better"/more secure.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

2 different devices, 2 different manufacturers.
You can't compare them directly, just by looking at the firmware version and date.

Then I'm asking for another way to compare them. Please help me compare them in-directly.

 

[bill001g]

You can't even think to compare routers firmware from different vendors. It would be like comparing firmware for iphone to android. Even withing android you can't compare phones from different manufactures.

You can also make the argument that older firmware with no updates available may just imply they have fixed all the bugs and the firmware is now stable. Chasing the latest firmware always runs the risk that you fix one bug and get a different one. Microsoft has screwed up their monthly update a couple times and had to stop any more people from taking the update.

Routers are very simplistic devices compared to computers so it not like there are a lot of exploits.

 

[USAFRet]

You are overthinking this.

Maybe the one with the older firmware had better software developers, and they fixed and added stuff earlier.
Or maybe their corporate masters decided to suspend any further dev on that particular model.
Or maybe, just maybe...you can't compare the two based on that alone.

After buying hundreds, nay thousands, of computer parts over the last several decades...the last time I compared two different products from two different manufacturers based on firmware version and release date was exactly never.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

Exactly. Car company A has a 2.0L engine, and company B has a 2.1L engine. Which engine is "better"? They might be similar, but the car they go into will make a difference as well. I've never suggested someone buy X over Y because the firmware is newer.

Wait in your scenario the car is the motherboard of the router & the engine is the firmware, right...? Suppose you have a Tesla & a Prius; Tesla gives your car regular upgrades, but Prius doesn't. In this case which would be a better car?

 

[4745454b]

It's also possible the bug hasn't been found, or it has been found but there is no fix. In short, there is no way to really know. But you can't say the older router is "worse" because it hasn't been updated in a year, nor can you say it's "better" for the same reason. It's a router.

 

[USAFRet]

Exactly. Car company A has a 2.0L engine, and company B has a 2.1L engine. Which engine is "better"? They might be similar, but the car they go into will make a difference as well. I've never suggested someone buy X over Y because the firmware is newer.

Wait in your scenario the car is the motherboard of the router & the engine is the firmware, right...? Suppose you have a Tesla & a Prius; Tesla gives your car regular upgrades, but Prius doesn't. In this case which would be a better car?

Tesla gives you regular updates because they're still fixing it, and working the bugs out.
A Corolla or even a Prius is already done.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

You are overthinking this.

Maybe the one with the older firmware had better software developers, and they fixed and added stuff earlier.
Or maybe their corporate masters decided to suspend any further dev on that particular model.
Or maybe, just maybe...you can't compare the two based on that alone.

After buying hundreds, nay thousands, of computer parts over the last several decades...the last time I compared two different products from two different manufacturers based on firmware version and release date was exactly never.

Okay so now I'm kinda getting the point. We actually don't know exactly what a firmware upgrade does to our router. It maybe old because there are no issues/bugs & its stable, OR the developers just gave up & abandoned it.

 

[USAFRet]

You are overthinking this.

Maybe the one with the older firmware had better software developers, and they fixed and added stuff earlier.
Or maybe their corporate masters decided to suspend any further dev on that particular model.
Or maybe, just maybe...you can't compare the two based on that alone.

After buying hundreds, nay thousands, of computer parts over the last several decades...the last time I compared two different products from two different manufacturers based on firmware version and release date was exactly never.

Okay so now I'm kinda getting the point. We actually don't know exactly what a firmware upgrade does to our router. It maybe old because there are no issues/bugs & its stable, OR the developers just gave up & abandoned it.

If one cared enough, you can generally discover what a particular update fixed or added or took out.
That log is online somewhere.

But it applies to only that one device. The fault that was fixed in v3.4 for Router A may never have existed in Router B.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

Exactly. Car company A has a 2.0L engine, and company B has a 2.1L engine. Which engine is "better"? They might be similar, but the car they go into will make a difference as well. I've never suggested someone buy X over Y because the firmware is newer.

Wait in your scenario the car is the motherboard of the router & the engine is the firmware, right...? Suppose you have a Tesla & a Prius; Tesla gives your car regular upgrades, but Prius doesn't. In this case which would be a better car?

Tesla gives you regular updates because they're still fixing it, and working the bugs out.
A Corolla or even a Prius is already done.

Firmware upgrades can add certain feature to a routers right...? So suppose Tesla gave you Auto-Pilot upgrade & has been giving you regular updates (tweaking & improving) AND on the other hand Prius just updated your entertainment station last year & fixed all the bugs in the entertainment station. Would you still consider going with a Prius? My point in all this is that if we don't know exactly what a firmware does to our router, how can we even begin to comapare it with anything else; even with a router from the same manufacturer...?

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

You are overthinking this.

Maybe the one with the older firmware had better software developers, and they fixed and added stuff earlier.
Or maybe their corporate masters decided to suspend any further dev on that particular model.
Or maybe, just maybe...you can't compare the two based on that alone.

After buying hundreds, nay thousands, of computer parts over the last several decades...the last time I compared two different products from two different manufacturers based on firmware version and release date was exactly never.

Okay so now I'm kinda getting the point. We actually don't know exactly what a firmware upgrade does to our router. It maybe old because there are no issues/bugs & its stable, OR the developers just gave up & abandoned it.

If one cared enough, you can generally discover what a particular update fixed or added or took out.
That log is online somewhere.

But it applies to only that one device. The fault that was fixed in v3.4 for Router A may never have existed in Router B.

So back to my 1st reply then; "To know if a newer/older firmware is better/worse, is to check the change logs/release notes of all the firmware upgrades that were ever released for these particular models?"

 

[USAFRet]

Firmware upgrades can add certain feature to a routers right...? So suppose Tesla gave you Auto-Pilot upgrade & has been giving you regular updates (tweaking & improving) AND on the other hand Prius just updated your entertainment station last year & fixed all the bugs in the entertainment station. Would you still consider going with a Prius? My point in all this is that if we don't know exactly what a firmware does to our router, how can we even begin to comapare it with anything else; even with a router from the same manufacturer...?

You choose between a Tesla and a Prius for other things. Primarily, price.
The Tesla is still a beta version.

For a router, you look at:
Features
Stability
Security
Price.


Not what the number or date is on the most recent firmware release.

 

[USAFRet]

So back to my 1st reply then; "To know if a newer/older firmware is better/worse, is to check the change logs/release notes of all the firmware upgrades that were ever released for these particular models?"

You look at features. You read independent reviews. (Not Amazon or Newegg buyer reviews)
For most people, reading the actual changelog and release notes is like reading Classical Greek.

 

[Satyajit Mishra]

Can someone please tell me from personal experience how important/necessary are security updates in a router's firmware upgrade?

 

[USAFRet]

Can someone please tell me from personal experience how important/necessary are security updates in a router's firmware upgrade?

Well...if they discovered an issue, it should be fixed.