Our router is more than its specifications and whether to buy a new one or to check if it still satisfies our needs we have to look at more things. The hardware that incorporates our router such as CPU, RAM, Ethernet ports and Wi-Fi capabilities will largely determine its performance. However, another very important factor is the firmware, since with very similar hardware more or fewer functionalities can be obtained. In some models, in addition to the official firmware, there are others developed outside of the manufacturer. In this article, we are going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using the official firmware on the router.
Update the firmware of our router
As for updating an official firmware on the router, it is usually done in two different ways:
-
Some reputable manufacturers are able to download firmware and then install it. You can choose between making it all automatic or asking you if you want to update it at that time.
-
Others you have to go to the manufacturer's website, download the firmware on your own and proceed to update it.
Another thing to keep in mind is the firmware date of that router. The way to check it is to enter the router online by entering our username and password, and then go to the corresponding section to update. This would be an example of the router that I am connected to now:
As you can see, in this case, it has an official firmware on the router and it has been updated recently. This means that the router is not outdated in terms of security because it has been recently updated. Also, this model belongs to the class of routers that is capable of downloading firmware by itself. In this case, it would be by clicking on "Search for a new FRITZ! OS". As each manufacturer is different, here you have explained how to update the firmware of your router.
Advantages and disadvantages of the official firmware
There are some routers that allow us to install third-party firmware such as DD-WRT, OpenWRT and even firmware based on the official one but with incorporated improvements such as Asuswrt Merlin. Of course, we cannot forget one of the most popular firmware such as Tomato.
Advantages
We could define the official firmware as the firmware provided by the manufacturer itself. In this regard, it should be noted that not all are the same since some brands such as ASUS, AVM with its FRITZ! OS firmware and NETGEAR offer us more functionalities.
As for the advantages that it can provide us, they are the following:
-
The most modern ones offer us support for WPA2 / WPA3-Personal and also WPA3-Personal.
-
They support QoS to prioritize the type of network traffic, this can be essential to avoid that one client or several customers monopolizing all the bandwidth.
-
They allow you to create a VPN, FTP, Samba or print server.
-
Schedule Wi-Fi on and off.
In addition, as we have already mentioned before, behind this firmware is the manufacturer itself. This means that it will not be manipulated by a third party for malicious purposes. Here you have the characteristics of the most complete official firmwares.
Disadvantages
In this case, it will depend a lot on the manufacturer of the router. For example, the ones we discussed earlier tend to respond well to unforeseen incidents and regularly update the firmware on their network equipment. The problems of having an official firmware usually come when we run out of support. As time goes by, security vulnerabilities appear that must be corrected, but if the manufacturer has stopped supporting the router, then we will have a serious problem. We can say that they have become obsolete and we have a better chance that a cybercriminal can penetrate our network.
When a router is left without support from the manufacturer it is something quite serious, because new vulnerabilities and performance improvements will never reach our team. For this reason we should choose a manufacturer that releases firmware updates for their equipment continuously.
A typical case of inconvenience in the official firmware of an operator's router is that they do not always update often, and they do not usually put a place to download their firmware. Also, a danger that we can have with an official firmware that if it is the type that we have to update ourselves and we do not do, we will also be compromising our security.
Finally, it should also be noted that sometimes for certain models there are unofficial firmware that has more functionalities such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT and Tomato. In addition, they could even be newer and also gain some more performance. Thanks to this third-party firmware, what we can do is give our router a second life by installing an updated firmware.