NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

Doug_Ho's avatar
Doug_Ho
Apprentice
Jan 12, 2021

WAC505 Zero Day SSID password excludes spaces

Is there a way to report bug to Netgear firmware person here - without having to *pay* for support since my product is around 100 days old?  If so, here goes (otherwise I guess the bug will just keep happening until someone either pays or happens to notice it within the first 90 days):

 

When encountering the initial "Zero Day" configuration where you enter things such as desired SSID and password, I have found that spaces typed in as part of the password are ignored.  Using Chrome browser, choosing local web management, WPA2, etc.

 

Going into the full local web config later and clicking the icon to view password will show that spaces were ignored.  Spaces can be added at that time (in the full web config).

 

The frustrating part is that there is no warning of limitation at the time you are typing spaces (or clicking to proceed) in the Zero Day.  So you have to realize the problem on your own, then you learn to log in and add the spaces.

 

7 Replies

  • schumaku's avatar
    schumaku
    Guru - Experienced User

    Good find - thank you for reporting! Interesting would be the firmware version which was installed when the issue happend.

     

    Of course you can report such issues here in the community. Netgear reps like RaghuHR will take care of it. Suspect this applies to all WAC5xx and WAX6xx Zero Day Web UIs. 

     


    Doug_Ho wrote:

    ... (otherwise I guess the bug will just keep happening until someone either pays or happens to notice it within the first 90 days):


    A pure statistical problem 8-). How many WAC505 owners try to add a space char - valid as per IEEE Std. 802.11i-2004, Annex H.4.1 2. "Each character in the pass-phrase must have an encoding in the range of 32 to 126 (decimal), inclusive" -  in the Day Zero UI, and then again after the 90 days of complimentary technical support. I guess very few ... and most have silently worked around as you did. 

     


    Doug_Ho wrote:

    When encountering the initial "Zero Day" configuration where you enter things such as desired SSID and password, I have found that spaces typed in as part of the password are ignored.  Using Chrome browser, choosing local web management, WPA2, etc.

    ...

    The frustrating part is that there is no warning of limitation at the time you are typing spaces (or clicking to proceed) in the Zero Day.  So you have to realize the problem on your own, then you learn to log in and add the spaces.


    Absolutley - it's not acceptable input strings are parsed, truncated, concatenated, or changed in any other way without notifying the user.

     

    A side problem: 1st level support must allow bug reports regardless of the support status. This might be difficult to adjust for them...

    • Doug_Ho's avatar
      Doug_Ho
      Apprentice

      WAC505 ships with firmware 1.5.3.10 so the Zero Day was very likely with that.  Immediately after the Zero Day setup, WAC505 was updated to the latest firmware which was 9.1.0.13 until 2-3 days ago when firmware 9.2.0.6 came out.

       

      The set of prople noticing this probably reduces down to only me, because 99% of people will use Insight and the remaining 1% may not have space in their password or they won't realize it was a Zero Day setup bug like I did.

       

      If Netgear is too lazy to try the repro themselves and there is a URL which gets me back to Zero Day with current firmware 9.2.0.6, I'm willing to try to see if it repros on 9.2.0.6.  But not sure what good any of this does since it is not the firmware which ships in the box.  I'd have to be in Netgear's Beta for something like that, and so far they have only involved me in Beta of consumer hardware not Business.

    • Doug_Ho's avatar
      Doug_Ho
      Apprentice

      schumaku wrote:

      Good find - thank you for reporting! Interesting would be the firmware version which was installed when the issue happend.

       

      Suspect this applies to all WAC5xx and WAX6xx Zero Day Web UIs. 

      FWIW, I installed new WAX610 today, which arrived with firmware 9.0.1.9 and did NOT have any problem with WPA2 containing spaces during Zero Day web setup.  So perhaps the dropping of spaces bug was fixed somewhere between WAC505's 1.5.3.10 and that 9.0.1.9

NETGEAR Academy

Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology! 

Join Us!

ProSupport for Business

Comprehensive support plans for maximum network uptime and business peace of mind.

 

Learn More