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Netgear Support
This post is purely informational, mostly a venting session because I just got another silly request from Netgear support. Thus: no help or reply is needed here. Comment at your leisure. If you ...
GWild wrote:
One positive note - for the time being - at least Netgear is not requiring smart phone app based router management. Though, the fact you can't turn off said app based management is in itself a serious security risk.
My impression has been that installing the Orbi "app" is entirely optional. Don't install the app and (because it's not installed) do not connect it to the Orbi. If it was installed, then delete the app, change the Orbi management password and change the Netgear login password. What am I missing?
I have long suspected "memory leaks" might be responsible for some of the Orbi quirks. Can you point to a discussion that explains buffer overruns?
Thanks
CrimpOn wrote:My impression has been that installing the Orbi "app" is entirely optional. Don't install the app and (because it's not installed) do not connect it to the Orbi. If it was installed, then delete the app, change the Orbi management password and change the Netgear login password. What am I missing?
True - and that is a good thing. Some companies are going down the path you must use a phone app to set up the router and leaving out all web based management.
A side bar is the Netgear CBK40 and CBR752 products can be controlled remotely - that is - you can affect settings without a wire physically connected to the device. While I have not hammered on this method, it is well known and well documented that management of any device via airways (like Bluetooth or WiFi) is a huge security hole. The response I got from Netgear? "Do you believe username and password isn't enough?" When I asked how I could change the username to something other than the default admin all I got was silence: so there went 50% of that security feature. And under Remote Management options on the CBR40 kit (not available on the CBR752 kit) all you can do is disable the WAN side of things; with no control over WiFi access to the settings: anyone who can hack into your WiFi network is probably smart enough to exploit the many known Negear router vulnerabilities/hacks out there to log in as admin.
Why is security a such a concern to me? I lived next to a guy who spent his days hacking into wifi networks in the neighborhood - caught him banging my WiFi password for over a year - no clue if he ever got inside - there were known WPA2-AES hacks so he probably should have been able to. He even tried setting up a honeypot with the same SSID, lol. And we all can see the many remote port scanners working if you just look at your router logs. One of them successfully got into my CBK752 within hours of allowing a single port through to a Linux based security cam server (tracked it down to a Russian group in Moldovia operating through a VPN server in Georgia, US).
As they say - I try to be a good citizen and keep my doors locked if only to keep my neighbors honest. A friend who didn't, he is a pragmatist and left his doors unlocked so that thieves wouldn't break a window to get in, found out that theives don't even bother checking the lock - they just break the window. Again, digression.
So maybe I am just wasting time and effort worrying about security.