Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

jahed.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 230 posts

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#21

Post by [deleted] »

treesknees wrote: post #7
SavantIdiot wrote: post #3

Huawei AX3 does something similar. As does any Xfinity router (but I think you can turn that off) but the Xfinity mesh is actually pretty decent if you have a subscription. Similarly, in Vietnam HCMC you can connect to wifi anywhere in the city because every telco/isp router creates a mesh like Xfinity. It's not a bad idea: having wifi network everywhere, but I suspect 5G will obviate this need. Wouldn't surprise me…

The public hotspot systems are actually much "worse" in terms of the overheads the author wrote about. With a couple of unused SSIDs, they're just sending out a simple 802.11 beacon frame every so often and that's it. The energy cost and disruption to surrounding networks/channels must be minimal. With a hotspot, not only do you have regular network traffic flowing and causing more potential interference, your router…

[deleted]

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#22

Post by sgarman »

bpye wrote: post #13
andrewxdiamond wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So after the Ubiquiti debacle… I was in this same boat, but did you know that data breach was completely fabricated by a disgruntled employee? They didn’t actually leak any data or had any real breach. It’s still not great that this was doable, but at some level, someone has to have the keys to the kingdom. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29411775 I think Ubiquiti makes really nice gear for prosumers, and it i…

There was more to the debacle, for example, putting ads for their other products in the controller UI.

Or the new version of their controller software missing huge chunks of functionality causing you to keep switching from new UI to old UI depending on what you needed to get done.

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#23

Post by dariosalvi78 »

amenghra wrote: post #15
treesknees wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public hotspot systems are actually much "worse" in terms of the overheads the author wrote about. With a couple of unused SSIDs, they're just sending out a simple 802.11 beacon frame every so often and that's it. The energy cost and disruption to surrounding networks/channels must be minimal. With a hotspot, not only do you have regular network traffic flowing and causing more potential interference, your router…

Too bad fon/fonera didn’t span out. The idea was to share your access point (in a secure way) and earn credits for doing so.

I still own a couple of foneras, I liked the model..

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#24

Post by petre »

andrewxdiamond wrote: post #11
formerly_proven wrote: post #6

So after the Ubiquiti debacle I went out and looked for a similar combination (solid hardware + not-too-annoying software). After briefly considering Mikrotik (which has issues with ac (wifi 5) and no ax (wifi 6) support) I settled on Grandstream for now. They don't just make phones but a small set of fairly nicely featured wifi APs for ok prices. Hardware seems solid, Software not annoying. I've bought a few pieces…

> So after the Ubiquiti debacle… I was in this same boat, but did you know that data breach was completely fabricated by a disgruntled employee? They didn’t actually leak any data or had any real breach. It’s still not great that this was doable, but at some level, someone has to have the keys to the kingdom. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29411775 I think Ubiquiti makes really nice gear for prosumers, and it i…

We have an EdgeRouter. The firmware is super annoying, I couldn't get it to do everything that I want, boring stuff that is easy with FreeBSD or OpenBSD and PF, Linux or Mikrotik for that matter. IPv6 also is only configurable from the console. The hardware us good though, does lots of pps. Too bad its ruined by annoying software.

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#25

Post by azinman2 »

bpye wrote: post #13
andrewxdiamond wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So after the Ubiquiti debacle… I was in this same boat, but did you know that data breach was completely fabricated by a disgruntled employee? They didn’t actually leak any data or had any real breach. It’s still not great that this was doable, but at some level, someone has to have the keys to the kingdom. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29411775 I think Ubiquiti makes really nice gear for prosumers, and it i…

There was more to the debacle, for example, putting ads for their other products in the controller UI.

Given their inexpensive pricing, as long as they only do that in their admin interface and don’t mess with my packets, it’s not worth throwing the baby out with the bath water in my book… especially since there are no real competitors offering good hardware with nice UI.

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#26

Post by willis936 »

formerly_proven wrote: post #6

So after the Ubiquiti debacle I went out and looked for a similar combination (solid hardware + not-too-annoying software). After briefly considering Mikrotik (which has issues with ac (wifi 5) and no ax (wifi 6) support) I settled on Grandstream for now. They don't just make phones but a small set of fairly nicely featured wifi APs for ok prices. Hardware seems solid, Software not annoying. I've bought a few pieces…

Ubiquiti's Unifi line seems riddled with issues. Why would I want an account or the internet involved in any part of my network control?

However, I am quite happy with the Edgerouter series. I just wish it got more updates. The last update to EdgeOS is 6 months old. I don't like my security gateway not being patched with weekly security updates.

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#27

Post by tannr »

louloulou wrote: post #10

Not sure what they mean by "build my own router", it's easy enough to flash open firmware on a lot of tp-link models. https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2021/1...

it sounds interesting, however manufacturer claims it can stop functioning if you install "wrong" locale (whatever that means)

while I cannot get how hardware can die from install different "driver" warnings like that put me off from using tp-links. Perhaps I'll buy a cheap tp-link and give it a try just as experiment to see how far I can get

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#28

Post by chronogram »

Last week I bought a TP-Link AX55 and went through the settings and enabled all the neat things and disabled all the regular consumer ease of access things (WPS, meshing things), and the only hidden networks in my area with the same app are several decibel away with a different MAC address. Either it’s not around in the newer models or it’s part of one of the regular consumer ease of access things.

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#29

Post by orangepurple »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #18

Many TP-Link products are absolutely terrible. Their Mesh products at Costco, you have to use an app on your phone to manage them and they are tied to an online account so presumably they are shipping your network info back to China. They won't even let you change your login email address once you've registered.

Cheap $20 TP-Link Wireless AC routers are capable of reliably running latest builds of DD-WRT if you turn the link power down. I run my TP-Link TX power at the minimum allowable setting. You can count on a reliable 866 mbps!

Re: Hidden Networks in TP-Link Routers

#30

Post by stonepresto »

mhitza wrote: post #12

This type of whackery is (the primary reason) why I try to buy computing devices on which I can flash a clean OS (OpenWrt/DD-WRT for routers)[1]. It sucks because it limits my choices down to a few, but at the same time I feel like I don't throw out money at abandonware. [1] don't even get me started on TP-Link releasing routers with the same name but v2/v3/2020/2021 update where it's hard to even know if I'm buying…

TP-Link loves to make things proprietary. They have a custom protocol called the Tether Management Protocol, the weird OneMesh stuff noted here, custom firmware headers and signing, etc. all without proper documentation.

Many major vulns in TP-Link devices have been a result of these protocols, save for a few prolific things such as FragAttack. But hey, I guess it gives people something to hack on.

Post reply on HN