> an always-on Windows device will use around 1,6 KB per month How is this possible? Is the author ignoring Windows Update?
Why all the downvotes? Sorry I asked a clarifying question, geez.
TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
181–190 of 245 posts
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#182PSA Anyone with commodity routers, repeaters, etc. please check out LEDE project https://lede-project.org . Check if your device has support here - https://lede-project.org/toh/start LEDE firmware is amazing. You will be able to do a lot more with your router and they have quick security fixes. The recent krack vulnerability was fixed within 2 days after the announcement.
On LEDE, it seems that there is always an hardcoded DNS fallback to 8.8.8.8. I see it in my logs, even if none of my configuration files mentions it.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The future of the project is uncertain, however. They may or may not be around much longer. Can you elaborate on this?
In a nutshell: OpenWRT existed. They kinda sorta pretty much stopped doing anything. LEDE sprang up as a fork, with several of the OpenWRT folks. Then they all decided to work together and joined back up. Now it's anybody's guess what will happen next, if anything, as nothing has really happened since.
OpenWRT is dying, but LEDE is alive and kicking hard.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#184Don't bother with repeaters. Get normal access points, and install several of them if you need to disperse the range around a large area/building/complex. If the SSID and security passphrases match, clients will roam seamlessly between the different APs. I suspect the reason people buy repeaters is that they don't realise that this is possible, or they don't want additional cabling. Repeaters add latency and I can't…
>> Repeaters add latency and I can't imagine any network engineer would ever recommend one.
Keep in mind that these TP-Links are consumer grade hardware, and that they make sense for some use cases. Not every consumer can or wants to run wire for another AP, regardless of what a network expert would say.
I use an RE450 at my dad's house (which happens to be next to mine) so when I'm there I can access the Internet. My parents don't have any computers, smartphones or tablets and don't use the Internet. The RE450 does the job -- very well I might add -- and was cheaper and easier than drilling holes in masonry to run a network wire between the houses.
The NTP and DNS requests are concerning, but they don't materially impact my bandwidth cap on the plan I'm on.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I purchased some Ubiquity gear a few months back after a condo purchase, and ran into few problems: - UniFi brand works well for setup, but the cloud controller is necessary for command/control management outside of iOS/Android app. - EdgeRouter is not a UniFi product and does not act as a cloud controller. - EdgeRouter X does not deliver 48V PoE; upgrade was needed to power the AC-PRO. - EdgeRouter UI is ho…
My response was tongue in cheek but seriously I recommend budgeting a VM or Raspberry PI to run their controller software which offers the most configuration options. https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi/
A Raspberry Pi probably won't do. The controller requires MongoDB which itself is no longer supports the 32 bit architecture which most RPis are running on.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple Airport is probably the best router I have ever owned. Not the fastest, but extremely Stable, based on NetBSD and from a company that makes money on my hardware rather then my Data. I really hope they will have an 802.11ax version once they iron out all the crap that is going on in there.
Apple Airports are also not compatible with all network configurations - it would not work with my fiber connection due to the MTU, and I had to buy a router from another brand.
good old apple: it just works, for very light and simple amounts of work.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think they're unsigned? Surely there's at least some basic checksumming if not cryptographic signatures inside of that blob? There's no reason to even bother with delivering it over https if you put a good signature on the blob itself.
I would assume it does not do those things, or else creating/flashing custom firmware like DD-WRT would presumably be impossible. They could be doing some verification in the firmware itself, but obviously that only saves you from bad downloads - anybody serving you up a malicious firmware can easily just serve one up without the verification checks inside.
This is not the case anymore.
https://github.com/xdarklight/mktplinkfw3/blob/master/README...
Their firmwares for newer devices do indeed include signature support. A malicious firmware on their server will fail the signature check and not be flashed. Signature checks occur only in the flasher, not in the bootloader, but that would require physical access to the device, at which point all bets are off anyways.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I purchased some Ubiquity gear a few months back after a condo purchase, and ran into few problems: - UniFi brand works well for setup, but the cloud controller is necessary for command/control management outside of iOS/Android app. - EdgeRouter is not a UniFi product and does not act as a cloud controller. - EdgeRouter X does not deliver 48V PoE; upgrade was needed to power the AC-PRO. - EdgeRouter UI is ho…
My response was tongue in cheek but seriously I recommend budgeting a VM or Raspberry PI to run their controller software which offers the most configuration options. https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi/
I tried putting it into a docker container, but in the end didn't want to deal with the complexity -- bought a key. Does the VM/Raspberry PI get you anything the key doesn't?
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I purchased some Ubiquity gear a few months back after a condo purchase, and ran into few problems: - UniFi brand works well for setup, but the cloud controller is necessary for command/control management outside of iOS/Android app. - EdgeRouter is not a UniFi product and does not act as a cloud controller. - EdgeRouter X does not deliver 48V PoE; upgrade was needed to power the AC-PRO. - EdgeRouter UI is ho…
My response was tongue in cheek but seriously I recommend budgeting a VM or Raspberry PI to run their controller software which offers the most configuration options. https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi/
The Unifi cloud stick isn't that much more expensive than a PI, and is probably the least amount of work to set up a dedicated controller.
I use an Atom based PC stick that I had lying around to run the controller (on Windows) and it works great.
Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds
#190One silly thing that I hadn't thought of; the use of NTP for devices like this should mean that the NTP operators can gather pretty accurate statistics about each device's market share. I guess the same folks who design software that spams things like this don't bother working too much on making it hard to fingerprint their devices, either. On the other hand, I haven't looked at the NTP protocol recently. Perhaps thi…
dns is a better target for this. Google even had rob pikes team do this sinkhole for them. which says its an expensive and worth goal and not some afterthought.