Just a general point that I wanted to put somewhere: people in IT are upset because of the constant need to renew certifications that mostly only exist for the purpose of getting past HR and have little to no professional value (not totally and not picking on any vendors in particular, just a reality.)
Much of this comes from a real or perceived need to "update." I think that this is mostly flawed. There are exceptions for things like the super general CompTIA Network+ which doesn't cover anything specific, just "networking", although even that is not entirely true.
To fix this, I believe we need to mostly, when possible, move to versioned exams and certs. When I took my Windows NT 4 exams there was no replacement to those. There wasn't a refresh or anything. The tests were for NT 4 and I am certified on NT4. Now that test might be old and useless today, but that's not what is important.
I am an MCSE+I, Microsoft has never offered that cert again since 1999. There is no refresh for it, probably never will be. All of my test are NT 4. I'm an MCSE on NT4. Someone with NT 4 in their shop should jump up and down to hire me. Someone with 2003 should be suspicious. My certs are versioned. Someone with every cert since the NT 4 but lacking the NT 4 has different skills than me. Simply being an MCSE doesn't give enough information to anyone.
The need to refresh only exists when you have certs that are too general. Like a "Linux" cert. What does that mean? Does it cover the operation systems that you care about? Does it cover the versions of those that you care about? Does it cover the focus that I care about (server, desktop, embedded, etc.)
For example a Red Hat Exam for RHEL 5 Desktop need not "expire" as the cert should be versioned. It shouldn't matter if you took it a decade ago or yesterday, you know RHEL5.
A Linux+ exam, though, is problematic because it could be any distro, any focus and from any era. So they are forced to have expirations and refreshes - but even with those we don't know what the intended goal of the cert is.
The Network+ could be the Network+ TCP/IPv4 and Switched Ethernet exam and not need to refresh either, because TCP/IPv4 hasn't changed in decades. But because the cert is ambiguous it might cover obsolete and useless technologies like IPX/SPX, Token Ring and non-switched Ethernet. Even if we take the exam today, nothing in its name or focus suggests that it is intended to be on modern, useful technologies. Interpretation is left up to others.
Simple versioning can go a very long way to solving many of the problems with certs along with companies treating them in intelligent ways. No let someone be just Network+ certified, make them Network+ TCP/IPv4 certified. If they want v6 certification, make that a different cert - it is a new technology and those having taken the v4 six months ago should not show up the same as people taking the v6 today or whatever. The problem exists in both directions.