Maybe if the US wants to get serious (or at least effective) about security, we need ridiculousness like this to be regulated/outlawed.
Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
121–130 of 197 posts
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#122> You can login and access all features through the local browser UI 3 times without registering the switch through your netgear.com account. How generous, for a device that people buy (not rent) from them, and pay actual money for (not receive for free). And apparently Netgear didn't even feel the need to bother including any contrived excuse as to why this is being introduced. What a time to be alive.
I wonder how long until this gets hacked, and someone releases a cracked firmware with this idiocy removed. Clearly, the functionality is already there if it can be accessed "3 times". This is the dark side of the "update culture" --- forcing you to take all the things you don't want along with the bug fixes. Aided by dire security warnings of not updating, it's a perfect way to achieve control over your userbase.
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Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how long until this gets hacked, and someone releases a cracked firmware with this idiocy removed. Clearly, the functionality is already there if it can be accessed "3 times". This is the dark side of the "update culture" --- forcing you to take all the things you don't want along with the bug fixes. Aided by dire security warnings of not updating, it's a perfect way to achieve control over your userbase.
You can probably install tomato, ddwrt, or openwrt.
I have serious doubts. Having worked with switch ASIC vendors before (Marvell, Broadcom), they require you to sign a mile long NDA before you can even access datasheets.
If you can get the switch vendor to release a GPL archive (which is often a struggle in of itself) I have never seen them release the source code to manage the switch ASIC. That's always built as an out-of-tree module which is not released as part of the GPL archive.
Many switches are not even running Linux, it's quite typical to see eCos, VxWorks, or an RTOS (e.g. ThreadX) on a switch.
tl;dr - even if the switch runs Linux (many don't), it is very unlikely you will have the datasheet and/or reference implementation for managing the switch ASIC
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#124Netgear doesn't even care that the "ReadySHARE" almost all their routers are marketed with, is broken: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Read... Why would I ever want to enable SMB 1.0 (security issues, deprecated) on my R8000. And even then, shares require admin credentials. IMO this is refund material.
> IMO this is refund material.
It's also the kind of thing EU regulators pick up on.
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#125I recently bought a couple of Netgear Managed Switches (for Business)⁰ and in their datasheet they list "Local-only management" as a feature. Only after they arrived we discovered that you only get limited functionality in the Local-only management mode, you have to register the switches to your Netgear Cloud account to get access to the full functionality. Reading up on it, this was achieved only after a community o…
I ran into a similar issue with a Linksys consumer router. Needless to say, that was back in the box and to the retailer in a new york minute. I ended up going with Ubiquiti equipment for now, since it was available locally. Much more expensive and complicated but Linksys convinced me it was worth any cost to get the hell away from them. But I will definitely be looking into the Turris Omnia, pfSense devices, and may…
Doesn't Ubiquiti require online registration, too? It was the first thing I had to do to set up my Unifi AP.
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#126I recently bought a couple of Netgear Managed Switches (for Business)⁰ and in their datasheet they list "Local-only management" as a feature. Only after they arrived we discovered that you only get limited functionality in the Local-only management mode, you have to register the switches to your Netgear Cloud account to get access to the full functionality. Reading up on it, this was achieved only after a community o…
We buy the same type of switches (and some larger/faster ones) from Netgear since a few years. The problem is: The old version (v2) is locally managed only, whereas the new version (v3) is with cloud management: https://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/smart/GS1... https://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/smart/GS1... Maybe you looked into the datasheet of the old v2? And then got delivered the ne…
> 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.
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#127I recently bought a couple of Netgear Managed Switches (for Business)⁰ and in their datasheet they list "Local-only management" as a feature. Only after they arrived we discovered that you only get limited functionality in the Local-only management mode, you have to register the switches to your Netgear Cloud account to get access to the full functionality. Reading up on it, this was achieved only after a community o…
Am I the only one who feels like this is a huge industry espionage risk? Especially if the cloud is in China?
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
How handy, that should be plenty of logins to install Fresh Tomato on the router.
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.
> why you would chose Tomato over dd-wrt or openwrt
As far as I know the choice is constrained by the SoC in the device you have (or are planning to get): generally, Tomato has better support for Broadcom devices, and OpenWRT works better on Atheros. DD-WRT should be more balanced in this aspect. (And predictably, open-source support for MediaTek devices is the most patchy.)
I haven't really used Tomato. Between DD-WRT and OpenWRT, the former is arguably easier to set up (through the GUI), while the latter can offer more functionality (with no hardcoded settings and a huge repository of installable packages). OpenWRT has higher memory and storage requirements though.
Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#129Re: Netgear Firmware Requires Online Registration
#130I recently bought a couple of Netgear Managed Switches (for Business)⁰ and in their datasheet they list "Local-only management" as a feature. Only after they arrived we discovered that you only get limited functionality in the Local-only management mode, you have to register the switches to your Netgear Cloud account to get access to the full functionality. Reading up on it, this was achieved only after a community o…
One plus-side for them logging into Netgears cloud when they boot up - IF they get stolen. In that instance, would Netgear be able to assist in there recovery and law enforcement? Certainly would add to the old saying "every cloud has a silver lining".
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.