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I was reading up on the life expectancy of different building materials when I came across this gem.
Screenshot is of page 122 https://www.portseattle.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/SEA-SIPP%20Technical%20Report%20Appendix%20C%20Life%20Expectancy%20of%20Building%20Materials.pdf
I guess the ethernet cables could last that long, but they rate house wiring to a lower lifetime. Ethernet cables are not "wireless", however.
The only other wireless systems I can think of are garage door openers, but they are definitely not expected to last 50 years.
Technically speaking it’s probably accurate. The equipment itself is probably capable of working for 50 years.
This is the truth. I have some really old equipment going way back,and it all still works. It's just... nobody really wants a 10 megabit hub over a 1 gigabit switch.
There are few exceptions to this rule. The one I always think of is the tape drive. 75 years on and still going strong with advancements in storage amount and encryption etc. but otherwise, largely still the same technology.
Except there's so much software in all of those things that you'll just be opening yourself up to a ton of security flaws if they stop being patched.
And? I get where you’re coming from but a security flaw doesn’t mean it can’t be plugged in, powered on, connected to and used. It just means it’s not safe.
I don’t think there’s an argument that the technology has a useful life of 50 years. Usually when talking about the “life” of building products it’s about failure point, the time at which you can expect the product might fail and require replacement.
If it's not secure, it's not fit for purpose. I'm sure I still have a working wifi router that only supports WEP encryption, and I guess I could technically still use it to build my network, but it's just not something anyone should do.
Depends on how it is used. If the home automation is on a separate network from everything else with a secure gateway and no direct Internet access, security vulnerabilities are likely irrelevant.