Possible Age Degradation of Edgerouter Lite?

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Earbanean

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#324350 31-Mar-2026 09:28

Scratching my head a bit. I have Skinny 500/100 fibre, Edgerouter Lite, Netgear PoE switch and lots of connected clients (both ethernet and Wifi). Recently there have been temporary dropouts and/or buffering of streamed TV, Sonos radio, etc. All on wired client devices, not Wifi. When I've tried to debug, I've used the SpeedTest app on Windows or TvOS. It has showed speed dropping to around 50 Mbs down or lower. Sometimes zero.

As far as I'm aware there hasn't been a Skinny/Spark outage. Wifi not a factor, as I'm experiencing and testing the issue on wired clients. I'm trying to think what could be the cause and I'm thinking maybe the ageing ERL could be the issue. It's between 10 - 15 years old. Is performance on these likely to degrade with age?

Anything else I should be looking at, or testing?

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#3475903 31-Mar-2026 10:42

You could look to replace the internal USB drive from memory, bit of a process but might help solve.

But maybe worth looking to move to a new platform given the life it;s gotten if a reboot no longer fixes the issues.

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#3475905 31-Mar-2026 10:47

A 10-year-old router might start experiencing problems with its internal storage if used constantly. As suggested, time to see if the storage can be replaced, or might have to switch routers.

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robjg63

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#3475911 31-Mar-2026 10:49

Wow! 10-15 years old - its done you proud!

I have found that 'home' routers usually seem to last up to around 5 years then start going strange. They dont seem to die outright, but intermittently start losing connections etc and need frequent power cycles.

They do normally seem to run quite warm and I guess that takes a toll on the components and power supplies.

I agree with @mentalinc - I think you need to look at some new kit.

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Earbanean

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#3475924 31-Mar-2026 11:17

Thanks for the replies. I think that sort of confirms what I was thinking. I think I'm going to grab a Unifi UCG Ultra and set up this weekend. Seems like pretty good bang for the buck. Also, when I subsequently upgrade my access points, I think I'll go from Cambium to Unifi, in which case having their controller embedded in the Router GUI sounds nice.

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#3475942 31-Mar-2026 12:29

Better bang for buck if you're only needing Gigabit: https://www.gowifi.co.nz/grandstreamnetworks/gwn7001.html

Then have a look at Grandstream switching and access points. They're incredibly good value for money.

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Earbanean

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#3475985 31-Mar-2026 14:11

michaelmurfy:

Better bang for buck if you're only needing Gigabit: https://www.gowifi.co.nz/grandstreamnetworks/gwn7001.html

Then have a look at Grandstream switching and access points. They're incredibly good value for money.

Yeah, Grandstream kit have pretty impressive price points. I set up a couple of APs in the local rugby club where cost was a major priority. I thought they were OK, but vaguely remember a few quirks. e.g. updating firmware etc. Having said that, I would go with Grandstream for home if cost was more of a priority - but in our case, it's not.

For the extra cost (which isn't that much considering expected lifespan), I'm leaning more towards Unifi. Little stuff like 1Gbps IDS/IPS when we inevitably upgrade from 500/100. Having the Network app hosted in the router is appealing as well. Also, I want a single brand for router and APs - and probably switch at some point. The range of options and aesthetics of Unifi APs appeal a bit more, while not being wildly different to Grandstream for our use case.

Note, I looked it up and the ERL was set up Sep 2016, so it's done 9 1/2 years. Stand down little guy, your mission is complete.

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#3476063 31-Mar-2026 14:17

I would expect that your USB stick is starting to fail. I had a similar problem with an ERL.

If you open the ERL you will see the USB is flush on the PCB, so you need to get a USB stick that is only the width of a USB-A port like this one.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMHPC30700/HP-335W-USB-Flash-Drive---32GB-USB-32

Then there are plenty of docs online on how to do it using Linux, if you are not comfortable doing this and based in Wellington I would be happy to do it for you.

https://community.ui.com/questions/mkeosfs-easily-generate-USB-image-for-EdgeRouter/ca47f2c4-697c-4d4f-ab57-6ffe0a064d44

Earbanean

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#3476068 31-Mar-2026 14:28

BarTender:

I would expect that your USB stick is starting to fail. I had a similar problem with an ERL.

If you open the ERL you will see the USB is flush on the PCB, so you need to get a USB stick that is only the width of a USB-A port like this one.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMHPC30700/HP-335W-USB-Flash-Drive---32GB-USB-32

Then there are plenty of docs online on how to do it using Linux, if you are not comfortable doing this and based in Wellington I would be happy to do it for you.

https://community.ui.com/questions/mkeosfs-easily-generate-USB-image-for-EdgeRouter/ca47f2c4-697c-4d4f-ab57-6ffe0a064d44

Thanks I might have a crack at that, but I think I'll set up a replacement first. Two reasons for that. Firstly, it sounds like the speed issues/dropouts are increasing (angry wife WFH), so I need to fix or replace fast. Secondly, ideally I like to have a backup router, to quickly swap in if the Prod unit ever dies, etc. Refurbishing my ERL could be a good option for that - assuming there aren't other issues I'm not aware of.

richms

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#3476083 31-Mar-2026 15:14

I had to do the USB swap over in my old unifi gateway twice. The first flash drive I got only lasted a short time, but it was from the warehouse so go figure.

Other failure points are the power supply. That also has filed for me on my USG back in the day. Also twice because I got a crap replacement for the supplied one.

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fe31nz

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#3476366 1-Apr-2026 00:55

If you are still using the original power pack that came with your ERL, then that is the likely culprit. I have two ERLs and I had to replace the power packs on both of them within a couple of years if I remember correctly. I am still using one of them for quite light duties and it is fine using the new power pack since then. I got them a couple of months after they came on the market and have been running one 24/7 since then. The other was replaced with an ER4. The first batch of ERLs came with a fairly bad internal USB stick - my first ERL had the USB stick die within a couple of months, and was replaced under warranty with one from a later batch with a decent USB stick. The later USB sticks can be killed by you doing the wrong thing (such as setting up a log file to be written to the USB stick instead of to /var/log which is RAMdisk). But if you have just been using it for normal firmware updates and config changes, the later USB sticks are fine. If it really is the USB stick, you will likely have a problem finding a compatible replacement - it is a small physical size, and ones with that few GBytes of storage are not available any more. Larger storage sizes may work though - but do a web search to see if there is anyone who can say that for certain.

Earbanean

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#3476414 1-Apr-2026 09:19

fe31nz:

If you are still using the original power pack that came with your ERL, then that is the likely culprit. I have two ERLs and I had to replace the power packs on both of them within a couple of years if I remember correctly. I am still using one of them for quite light duties and it is fine using the new power pack since then. I got them a couple of months after they came on the market and have been running one 24/7 since then. The other was replaced with an ER4. The first batch of ERLs came with a fairly bad internal USB stick - my first ERL had the USB stick die within a couple of months, and was replaced under warranty with one from a later batch with a decent USB stick. The later USB sticks can be killed by you doing the wrong thing (such as setting up a log file to be written to the USB stick instead of to /var/log which is RAMdisk). But if you have just been using it for normal firmware updates and config changes, the later USB sticks are fine. If it really is the USB stick, you will likely have a problem finding a compatible replacement - it is a small physical size, and ones with that few GBytes of storage are not available any more. Larger storage sizes may work though - but do a web search to see if there is anyone who can say that for certain.

I was already onto the second power pack. I vaguely remember when the first one died, it was a one off event. Whereas this time round, performance appears to have gradually degraded to the point of being unusable.

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Earbanean

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#3476416 1-Apr-2026 09:24

So, UCG Ultra picked up on the way home from work last night and set up as soon as I got home. Full internet back - and happy family. I still need to do VLAN firewall rules, but otherwise all set up in 30 mins. It's a nice little bit of kit and, look and feel wise, it sort of reminds me of Sonos gear.

robjg63

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#3476535 1-Apr-2026 12:33

Now you are looking like a hero because you fixed the internet!!

Once you have all your settings etc sorted, you still have a nice little project trying to redo the USB stick on the old one and seeing if you can fix it (as a backup unit).

Didnt know any routers used a USB stick inside them - I imagine if its been writing to it for 10 years+ it has a high chance of corrupting.

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fe31nz

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#3477418 3-Apr-2026 02:00

robjg63:

Didnt know any routers used a USB stick inside them - I imagine if its been writing to it for 10 years+ it has a high chance of corrupting.

Unless you botch your configuration in a way that causes frequent writes to the USB stick, there is not a problem. It only gets written to when you change the configuration or upgrade the firmware, and the actual number of writes is very low. Anything that writes frequently (logs for example) writes to RAMdisk, not the USB stick.

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#3477419 3-Apr-2026 05:04

fe31nz:

robjg63:

Didnt know any routers used a USB stick inside them - I imagine if its been writing to it for 10 years+ it has a high chance of corrupting.

Unless you botch your configuration in a way that causes frequent writes to the USB stick, there is not a problem. It only gets written to when you change the configuration or upgrade the firmware, and the actual number of writes is very low. Anything that writes frequently (logs for example) writes to RAMdisk, not the USB stick.

I love the optimism, there is plenty of examples where developers who are lazy still keep on writing useless log messages to permanent storage causing excessive wear on the storage so the life of its on all the time means you can have a significantly reduced lifetime of the device.

https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/tesla-recalls-cars-with-emmc-failures-calls-part-a-wear-item/

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