Was anyone alble to pin down the cause for all this from last year?

I was reminded, last night as I wasn't able to sleep in a hotel, that I maybe destroyed two routers by using them to access the internet. I remembered this thread, too.
A few years ago two different routers broke down within a few weeks from when I started using them. Neither was repaired. They were both replaced. I wondered if they overloaded like this site did last year. Who knows...how do you make that old, pre-emogi, graphic that looks like a shrug? lol.