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Silly Required Registration Move
Greetings, Our company recently sunset some office locations. These locations returned back a handful of PoE+ managed switches that were functioning satisfactorily. We have some new office locati...
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Dear valued customer,
Thanks for your feedback. We are very sorry to hear that our switches have caused inconvenience to you and your business.
I'm the Product Line Manager for Smart Managed Pro switches and I'm here to help you resolve the current challenges you are facing.
Device registration is indeed required on Smart Managed Pro switches with Optional Insight Remote/Cloud Management, but there is no need for internet connectivity at any point in time. We have made it possible to register the switch without it being connected to the internet. For several reasons, we do require registration: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Smart-Plus-Click-Switches/Why-We-Require-Registration-on-Smart-Pro-Switches/m-p/1839465
After registering the device, users can unlock the switch full warranty and the support entitlement, as well as getting timely updates on security or privacy features, and firmware releases. We understand some users might not want to use internet or remote management for their devices. No problem - you can still keep local management for the device; as default, out of the box. The Insight Remote/Cloud management is just an option and is a way of future-proofing your network management. No need to use it if it does not apply to your business environment.
The device registration is very simple and straightforward. Even if your switch is not connected to internet, it can still be registered; for example via Insight Mobile App. We understand it's time consuming to register all a batch of switches in order to upload the switch configuration file. But there is a faster way to just register one switch and copy switch configs to unregistered switches. Please refer to the article in the link:
Frequent firmware updates are much recommended to keep your network efficiency and security. Many security features and performance improvements will be updated in regular future firmware releases. This is one of the reasons that NETGEAR would like to keep you, as our customer, informed - immediately when firmware updates to your NETGEAR devices come available. We do this for your safety and security, as well as for our own safety. Many governments across the world have recently passed legislation making vendors responsible for the future safety of electronic devices. In order to alert you of any potential security update, we need to be able to reach either you or your reseller. We have stated publicly that we DO NOT SHARE customer data. Your registration data is purely for internal use, as described.
Hope this has answered your questions. Please feel free to let us know if anything else we can do to help you. I am available for a direct conversation as well, please DM me. Also happy to jump on a call.
Sincerely,
Iphie Chen
Isn't it interesting that the new firmware that hobbled a fully functional product was freely available from Netgear without requiring registration? Now I wonder, why would that be?
I've burned too much time on this already. Your business practice is more than suspect and has nothing to do with the IT Security of your clients. Why even pretend otherwise? There is no valid reason have to "unlock" the full feature set of a product that had it available previously. Period, full stop.
- You could roll-back to earlier firmware - issue gone.
- Put in an estimate date with the registration - you can explain this in case you have a warranty claim later on (this is unrelated to the new policy, this issue you would have before) - and fetch the key required from support.netgear.com
The effort is a few minutes for the registration (if the switch has Internet acccess it's even easier). A problem that isn't a problem....
PS. Think again why these switches were not registered with Netgear at the installation time. Either it was pure laziness of the installer, or it was an attempt towards a potential warranty fraud. Figure now the (non-stated!) reason for the mandatory registration ....
It might surprise you that aversion to production registration doesn't have to be lazy or nefarious in nature. There are other valid reasons. I'm not trying now, nor ever in the past, to exercise any warranty "rights". I'm looking to redeploy it, not return or exchange it! In no shape, way, or form is the Netgear company being shortchanged by the repurposing of an existing piece of equipment. On the other hand, the Customer sure has!
Trying to track down a single item purchase through Accounts Payable from years ago, a few minutes, lol. You're right about the potential to roll back to the previous firmware. No interest now, it really just can-kicks the problem. Netgear no longer appears trustworthy.
"Figure now the (non-stated!) reason for the mandatory registration..." uh huh. Look, there is simply no excuse for removing functionality with a firmware "upgrade". If fraud is really the concern, don't honor warranty or support without registration. Easy. If access to future patches/updates is the ruse, then registration should have been a prerequisite to accessing the offending current firmware. But it wasn't. It was essentially a one-way registration trap.
On a side note, if your switches have internet access... well, that's almost criminally negligent.
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