Yes, and promptly, because a router is directly exposed to the outside world and its updates are largely security fixes. The more important question is whether the model still receives them at all.
A router is the one device in the house that is permanently reachable from outside it, which changes the arithmetic entirely.
Why router firmware is a special case
Almost everything else on a home network sits behind the router. The router itself does not. Flaws in its software are found and published, and the published ones are the ones that get used.
Firmware releases for consumer routers are overwhelmingly about closing those. Features and interface changes are the minority, and the rare update that breaks something is a smaller risk than the flaw it fixed.
Before you apply one
Note the current version, so you can say what changed if something does.
Export the configuration if the unit offers it. Some updates preserve settings and some reset them, and the maker’s release notes usually say which.
Do not interrupt it. An update interrupted partway through is the one genuine way to turn a working router into a brick, which is a reason to run it when the household is not depending on the connection and, if you have one, with the unit on a UPS.
The support question is the bigger one
Every model stops receiving updates eventually, and the date is rarely announced loudly.
Find the maker’s support page for the exact model and hardware revision — revisions of the same model name sometimes take different firmware — and look at the dates of the releases. A model whose most recent release is years old is not being maintained, and no setting on it changes that.
At that point the honest options are to replace the unit or to put it behind something that is being maintained. Continuing with an unmaintained router facing the internet is a decision rather than an oversight, and it is worth making it knowingly.
The same question, elsewhere on the network
Network enclosures publish updates for the same reasons and are frequently reachable from outside if remote access has been enabled. They should be treated as seriously as the router.
Managed switches and access points are usually not exposed to the outside, so the urgency is lower — but a managed unit that nobody ever updates is a managed unit whose configuration nobody remembers either.
Drive firmware is a different animal. It is issued rarely, usually to fix a specific defect, and the maker’s notes say what it addresses. Apply it when the notes describe a problem you have or a drive you own, and not otherwise.
What an update does not fix
Coverage, which is a placement question. The rate of the line, which belongs to the provider. A wired ceiling set by port speeds. And a model that has run out of support, which more firmware is precisely what it is not going to receive.
The questions that come up before an order
Should I turn on automatic updates?
For a router in a home, generally yes. The risk of an update arriving at an inconvenient moment is small against the risk of a known flaw sitting unpatched for months. Where a unit lets you schedule the window, put it somewhere nobody will notice.
How do I find out whether my model is still supported?
From the maker’s own support page for that exact model and hardware revision, which lists the firmware releases and their dates. Some makers publish an end-of-support date directly. A model whose last release is several years old is not being maintained, whatever the page says about it.
Last reviewed 10 September 2026