They have a range of personal/SOHO routers that all run officially-supported-by-manufacturer OpenWRT, and their own UI skin isn't bad (though easy to switch to LuCI if you want)
Reading through their support forums is what sold me on them - their firmware engineers actually pay attention to issues, engage in threads, and respond with patched firmwares.
I 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 was looking for small business switches recently and I noticed the trend across all brands to push hard for cloud management (aka your device is a brick when we get tired of supporting our cloud platform). I ended up with a local-only tp-link JetStream.
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.
Doesn't Ubiquiti require online registration, too? It was the first thing I had to do to set up my Unifi AP.
Ubiquiti does not require registration by default but it does collect and uploads data by default. This is configuring the AP via CloudKey. Don’t know about other methods.
This is becoming the dark-pattern-du-jour. I get this with videoconferencing too (webex, teams), where the app starts downloading and the ability to do what you want (use the browser) is hidden or delayed until you've failed.
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.
I realise HN isn't known for its sense of humour, but if this trend doesn't justify an analogy about being in a cloud city, setting a trap, someone altering a deal, and praying it isn't altered any further, I don't know what does.
Things like this are why I buy "dumb" equipment, which will remain obedient to you and not the manufacturer. My white goods are all many decades old. Washer and dryer are both entirely computer-free (mechanical controls) and don't even contain a single semiconductor (unless you count the indicator bulbs I replaced with LEDs.) Many people often think the house/life of a software developer is filled with "smart" things…
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 i…
There should be a warning on the box that you need internet for this to work or enable it. I guess we should talk to the lawmakers at the EU (or wherever you live) to make this stop.
All low end proprietary network gear is going managed by cloud. Ubiquiti on the soho side and now consumer. Open source is the only equipment you can trust to not adopt this model as it’s much more profitable than shipping a box once every five years.
I would posit that MikroTik is so far not doing this insanity, and price-wise is not far off from NetGear.
Nor DrayTek, AFAIK. And those are the two brands that I consistently see recommended for SOHO network gear these days. They don't have the flashy UI of something like Ubiquiti, so you do have to know what you're doing to set them up, but they seem to make reliable hardware and solid firmware.
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…
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.
I 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?
I 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…
As someone who buys a router/switch/dongle once a decade and doesn’t follow the networking meta, who do you buy from?