Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration

I ended up going with Ubiquiti equipment for now, since it was available locally.

Sadly, even Ubiquiti gear has recently been criticised for doing the built-in phone home thing.

Which is why I really really want Apple to come back to the Router Market.

I miss my Airport Extreme.

Doesn't Ubiquiti require online registration, too? It was the first thing I had to do to set up my Unifi AP.

> Maybe you looked into the datasheet of the old v2? And then got delivered the new v3?

We did not. We specifically chose the v3 version for its lower latency in switching packets and other features unrelated to cloud management.

Well, the industry has been wondering for a while whether white box hardware and SDN will be the way of the future. So far, even at higher prices, the traditional model of having a reseller as point of contact and your gear made by well-known brands with big support contracts has held up quite well. This has been, at least in part, due to less than perfect software for the SDN aspect. I wonder whether this increasing trend to lock everything to the cloud services when it's clearly not necessary for the core function of the product will be a catalyst for more networks -- particularly smaller ones that don't have huge enterprise support contracts in place anyway -- to consider the alternatives again.

Ubiquity and mikrotik for the personal / smb stuff.

Tp-link and Microtik.

Does anyone really steal routers and switches...? They are basically cheap as dirt or even hidden away in walls, and there is typically much better gear available during a break-in.

This is assuming Netgear cares

Consumer protection laws do not apply to businesses.

I noticed that too. A few weeks ago, clicking on a Zoom link in your browser would trigger an automatic download of the app installer (which I don’t want). The webpage would still display an “or launch in the browser” link. But yesterday I noticed the link was gone, thinking the only option was to install the app (which I still don’t want). But it turns out the browser link appears after a 5-second delay.

I wonder how many people installed the app thinking it was the only option now. I assume a lot of people. Or how to increase your install numbers with that one weird trick.

Very sneaky.

If you mean dark as in Darth Vader choke grip dark, and not dark as in subtle under the radar manipulation dark pattern, then yes.

More likely there to be a security breach at Netgear & similar companies within next 2-5years. Of course the registered data would be exposed and downloaded.

You can probably install tomato, ddwrt, or openwrt.

Netgear isn't (wasn't?) really low-end though. At least not priced as such. One would think they'd be making enough without having to resort to such tactics.

You're right Ubiquiti did it though and I believe their devices are priced even higher. (Edit: note the post next to mine says you can opt out of this.)

I agree replacing the stock firmware with an open-source aftermarket one like OpenWRT is the way to go but there's still the moral dilemma of supporting such practices with your wallet.

I was also thinking if this could be an attempt to thwart the second-hand market for their devices? Is the binding to the online account permanent, or maybe it requires unbinding the previous account first?

I would posit that MikroTik is so far not doing this insanity, and price-wise is not far off from NetGear.

Why can't we have network equipment that's designed from the ground up to run open source router firmwares? When my ISP gives me new networking hardware, the first thing I do is look for ways to flash new firmware on it or put it into bridge mode.

It's unfortunate that Ubiquiti is forcing telemetry on users. Having everything integrate into UniFi Controller is pretty neat. Like enough so that if I didn't already have an APU2 running pfSense, I'd very likely buy a UDM Pro despite it being immense overkill.

It's optional with Ubiquiti.

I used Tomato until around 2010 where I switched to dd-wrt, then around 2014 went with openwrt and haven't really followed Tomato in the last 10 years.

I wouldn't mind going back to where I started and using Tomato again, so I was curious what major thing(s) they've done in the last 10 years and why you would chose Tomato over dd-wrt or openwrt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism

Unless you use some cloud offering they have, there is no need for “managed services”.

Buy router, plug it in, change password and rarely any setting required for average user.

Not worth the monthly fees and data collection on users (name, email, location, credit card,...)

Out of all the terrible trends in technology today, I’m convinced that “unnecessary cloud-tethering” is the absolute worst. I should not need to sign in and get permission from the device manufacturer to use or configure a device or software I supposedly bought. I should not need you as an intermediary when I’m using it. I should not need to give you analytics on how I’m using it. You should not even know I’m using it! I don’t want an ongoing relationship with your company. Our relationship ends when I swipe my credit card.

It getting harder and harder to avoid this trash too. I fear it will be normal one day.

Same here. I try to buy appliances as dumb as possible. I know how fast software is being deprecated and my washing machine, fridge etc. are supposed to work for decades, not months.

There is the old joke along the lines of:

Tech enthusiast: Everything in my house is smart.

Tech workers: The most smart device in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it in case it makes a weird noise.

I live with my girlfriend here, and my router lists 14 devices connected to it, from phone and laptops to TV and Google home to one monstrosity of an IR blaster due to lack of "smartness" of the A/C. Some stuff are even programmed with IFTTT, some with NFC tags tapped by either of our phones, and many devices listen to magic packets on LAN.

I enjoy the convenience of being able to control pretty much everything from bed, with just voice, but I can't get rid of the dystopian feeling that I'm just a "user" of it, but not in control of it.

I buy "smarter" devices. Washing machines with better energy saving features. But I'll never buy "smart" appliances that require an internet connection.

My fridge just needs to keep my food cool. and I don't need to brew a cup of coffee from the bedroom.

Damn, that's impressive. Sadly I've yet to see an old non-electronic washer or dryer still work. Just about everything is simply worn out, even the hoses crack and crumble. But they did last a long time compared to new stuff.

Tbh, there's nothing wrong with electronics, "smart" doesn't mean it needs an Internet connection.

LG

Not really, the firmware is what we aim to replace. But if you want your device supported, you can pitch in. Post description/pics in the wiki, help test code, etc.

Yea, that's what I'm leaning toward at the moment. I already have a Cisco 2921 router and cisco switches in various places throughout my house.

So something dumb and performant is what I want. What I liked about the netgear modems is they do have models with a router built in without it being wifi which I would like to use as a failover. But I'll just keep my 2921 around as a failover if my new mikrotik router fails for some reason.

LOL. NO.

Arris (formerly Motorola) modems have a overheating reliability issue. Especially the Surfboard ones you like. SB6666

Go search online. You'll see.

I've had a number of them do this, and so I avoid their stuff.

The Arris box I currently have is a PITA to use. It takes several seconds to navigate between pages and its extremely illogical. I was just going to see if I can flash it with Openwrt or dd-wrt because it's just unusable.

Well, I'm running a SB6190 right now. I guess I'm going to go with either an SB8200 or a motorolla MB8600.

One thing I like about the SB8200 is that if I ever go back to running a "business" connection at home I can have a second IP assigned to the second WAN port it has.

I also plan on modifying the modem to fit into my network rack without a shelf like so: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/ft579e/finally_got...

So the actual internal matter a little bit to me as well.

The Synapse software is absolute trash.

I've used Logitech mice since forever, but their quality has taken a nose dive, so I bought a Razor Deathadder. Because everyone markets their products towards 13 year-olds, it's called "Deathadder" and it's stuffed full of RGB LEDs. To disable the LEDs, you must install the Synapse software which is Electron trash, because nobody writes real software any more. And you have to KEEP this software installed, to keep the LEDs off. If you uninstall it, the LEDs come right back on.

So I did what anyone would do: I took a screwdriver and a sidecutter, ripped out the leds and threw them in the trash.

Such a relief really to use Linux, the hardware just works out of the box. Or in theory could also be it doesn't work at all since there won't be downloadable drivers, but in practice all my peripherals have worked great.

According the the relevant Netgear Knowledge Base article[0], config file uploads and downloads are supported without registration.

I'd expect (I do not own one of these devices) that configuration without restriction can be done by uploading a modified config file.

Perhaps someone who owns a NETGEAR Smart Managed Pro Switch could chime in to confirm or refute that.

[0] https://kb.netgear.com/000061174

That's the exact one, actually. It would constantly go into a sort of "soft crash" mode where it would continue to run as a wifi router but with more dropped packets and the web interface was inaccessible. It was a nightmare.

I assume I just got a dud, but what a dud. It was such a gradual downward slide into being unusable that it was beyond warranty when I finally figured out it was unsalvageable.