The Linksys router we originally had was a BEFSR41 ~ the new one is GEB-blah,blah, blah.
We had the original on for over eight years without any problems.
Thats the router I have.
It isnt yer hardware
BEFSR41 is a good router
Can you get a little more precise detail of that second routers model?
If it’s a SWITCH it ain’t gonna work. Period.
Obviously, one would never hear about good-working router issues...they just do what they are supposed to do. But, I bot a brand-new Linksys BEFSR41 at a church sale for $4! Sealed in plastic-wrap! It worked for about a day or two, then I plugged my laptop into it and it just stopped. I did every variation of power-down, reset, reboot, etc etc I could think of, before bypassing said router and visiting several user groups. There were oodles of comments from folks (clearly much more skilled than I am) who could not get the thing to work. Many appeared to have had good luck with older ones, then theirs crapped out, then they bot a new one of the same type and couldn’t get it to work. That’s all I can tell you.