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TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

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Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#151

Post by tatersolid »

mseebach wrote: post #79
herpderperator wrote: post #59

Don'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…

> I suspect [...] they don't want additional cabling. You probably suspect correctly. Not having additional cabling is a pretty big selling point of wireless technology.

Especially as the majority of homes date back more than 25 years, and retrofitted cabling is very expensive.

And if you rent rather than own, you likely can’t add cabling at all under the terms of your lease.

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#152

Post by johnbellone »

technofiend wrote: post #107
w0utert wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Don'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. Or better yet, buy a bunch of Ubiqity UniFi's, which were specifically made for this purpose and should provide the most seamless and efficient way to blanket your house in Wifi (provided you already have cabling to the access points). They are not cheap, but al…

>Or better yet, buy a bunch of Ubiqity UniFi's Warning: do not follow this advice; Ubuiqiti products are like potato chips in that you can never eat just one. Oh I'll get the AC PRO access point, you think. Five minutes later you've set it via quick QR code scan and the UniFi app. That was painless! No wonder people recommend these things. Oh wait I need to make some more device tweaks but UniFi won't do it.. better…

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 horrid and it’s much easier to manage over SSH.

- Cloud Controller is easy to setup, but doesn’t work with all product lines.

tl;dr The hardware is really good, but software is lacking, especially because not all hardware is UniFi compatible.

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#153

Post by chatmasta »

shak77 wrote: post #103
herpderperator wrote: post #59

Don'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…

Most normal access points I've used won't work as wifi repeaters because they can't be in master and managed mode at the same time.

Does a router need two radios to support this dual mode? Or a single radio that supports transeiving? Or a single radio and two antennas? Or is a modified hostapd sufficient?

Basically, is it a hardware or software problem?

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#154

Post by chatmasta »

mikerg87 wrote: post #109

Honest question. How would you begin discovering this kind of leakage? Do you need some sorry of tap that records protocols and Mac addresses? Do these firmware emplacements have this as a built in feature. With so many IOT devices being plugged in seems like this would be handy

Easiest way is to plug the router into an upstream router that you control and sniff the traffic there.

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#155

Post by naasking »

alpb wrote: post #4

My most recent frustration with TP-LINK was they they DO NOT provide their firmware updates over HTTPS. They do not provide checksums for their firmware files either. (When I asked for these things, their support weren't helpful on Twitter.) So you're expected to download some unsigned binary over an untrusted connection and trust that with all your traffic. Definitely not buying TP-LINK next time. Good to know this…

Yikes. I've generally had good experiences with TP-LINK, so this is a bummer. But as others have noted, open source firmwares are available, so there's an upside.

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#157

Post by lunchables »

technofiend wrote: post #107
w0utert wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Don'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. Or better yet, buy a bunch of Ubiqity UniFi's, which were specifically made for this purpose and should provide the most seamless and efficient way to blanket your house in Wifi (provided you already have cabling to the access points). They are not cheap, but al…

>Or better yet, buy a bunch of Ubiqity UniFi's Warning: do not follow this advice; Ubuiqiti products are like potato chips in that you can never eat just one. Oh I'll get the AC PRO access point, you think. Five minutes later you've set it via quick QR code scan and the UniFi app. That was painless! No wonder people recommend these things. Oh wait I need to make some more device tweaks but UniFi won't do it.. better…

So true. Started with a couple AC AP PRO (incredible by the way). Ended up with an edgerouter poe and a poe unifi switch. I'm running the control on a vm on qemu/kvm and the seamless integration is wonderful. Once I plugged in the switch it popped up in the devices section and I could perform a one-click software upgrade, just like the WAP.

I will say that the features in the controller software rivals serious commercial offerings that I've used (Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive).

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#159

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

cheald wrote: post #147
tambourine_man wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone care to explain the pro/cons of DD-WRT vs Tomato vs OpenWRT vs LEDE vs etc?

LEDE is basically an OpenWRT fork which is being actively developed. The biggest draw is that it's actively developed, and managed in a Linux-style package manager setup, rather than monolithic baked firmwares that you have to flash wholesale. Patching against things like KRACK was as simple as just invoking the package manager. DD-WRT and Tomato are both old tried-and-true alternatives to vendor firmwares, and they…

Just to be clear, OpenWRT isn't 100% abandoned, but it's basically just a handful of sporadic package version bumps and backported bug fixes, which might not ever make it into an official numbered release. If the counts on GitHub are accurate/comparable, LEDE has almost 2000 more commits than OpenWRT. The OpenWRT website also seems to be semi-abandoned (the front page has had a spam post on it for over a month; it looks like it was moved there accidentally by a moderator intending to move it to a "trash" subforum).

Re: TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

#160

Post by garaetjjte »

keypusher wrote: post #34

Somewhat unrelated but if you are looking for a rock-solid router, check out Microtik. I've been through half a dozen routers over the years, with and without custom firmware, and having owned a Mikrotik Routerboard for the last year, it's the first one that just works 100% and never drops connections. Easy to set up if you know what you are doing and customizable if you want to dig in.

Yeah, Mikrotik have great devices for reasonable prices, but it is irritating that you can't run own applications on it, there is no publicly available working kernel to run under MetaROUTER, and they want 45$ for GPLed sources

https://mikrotik.com/downloadterms.html

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