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Forum Discussion
How do I remove this garbage from my router?
Updated to the latest Orbi firmware and enabled the trial of armour.
Today the router is blocking my access to legitimate websites falsly claiming they are phishing sites.
I canot see any...
i WANT TO KNOW ALSO ! THIS IS COMPLETE GARBAGE, I AM ON HOLD RIGHT NOW GETTING TERRIBLE SERVICE FROM NETGEAR.
THEY WANTED ME TO PAY TO GET THIS SH*T OFF MY ORBI. **bleep** YOU NETGEAR
So Netgear Armour is ransomware!
There doesn't appear to be a consensous on how to restore settings pre-Armor trial (even a factory reset may not work).
AND it appears NetGear wants at least $80 to provide support to uninstall the firmware it encouraged be installed on a trial basis. I'm an attorney and this is classic fraudulent inducement, which voids any warranty disclaimers and can result in punitive damages, even in arbitration. I'm ripping this piece of #$** off of my network, and then will file suit in a small claims court. May not win but they will spend more defending this than the $80 they are attempting to extort. Lesson learned. Used to be a pretty good company (although support was always suspect) from what i can tell.
Hi WCasey. You will never get the Orbi software pre-Armor since Armor is now an integral part of the Orbi firmware.
To the best of my knowledge, the only way to disable Armor is with the app. I've seen a post or two where doing so apparently didn't work but a factory reset did. At my end, I have disabled and re-ensabled Armor many times during my 90-day trial (still have a month to go); and when disabled, Armor is no longer funcional. Netgear Armor Portal can still be accessed, but alerts eventually stop after 24 hours or so.
For me, Armor as a standalone app on the router works great, but only after disabling daisy-chain topology. With daisy-chain enabled, I was experiencing chronic internet drops and jitter on 4K video streaming.
Enabling Bitdefender Total Security on Windows PC and MacBooks also caused all kinds of problems, some of which were similar to what you experienced, loosing access to the App Store for one.
So for now, I am back running Armor as a stand-alone app, with Bitdefender Total Security activated on one device only (iPod Touch). So far, everything is running smoothly.
I doubt that the foregoing will be of much comfort to you, but thought to share my experience with you and other readers. As to whether or not I will transition to a paid subscription at the end of the trial period, the verdict is still out. If the performance I've been getting over the last three or four days holds for the next 30 days, I might. I hope that by then, Netgear/Bitdefender will have smoothed out the process.
Good luck!
Netgear is ransomwre in general, not just Armor. After two years, their SSL certificate was expired and when I tried talking to them or sending an email, I realized that I need to pay them to get their contact number! And they won't answer questions unless I pay a subscription! That's outright hostage taking!
If you look at the warranty information that comes with your product the Netgear devices come with standard 90-day free phone support. If you wait more than 90 days after you got your product and call support after that they will pitch you a support contract. If you don't want that then you can use other support options, email, community, or KB articles. So it's not ransomware if you are told the warranty and support terms upfront. Also, the hardware warranty is different from the phone support so it should not be confused.
As far as Armor goes you can fully disable it using the app by going to Settings/Security and toggling Enable NETGEAR Armor. If the option does not work as you mentioned make sure you are using the latest app version and FW version. Sometimes depending on what's going on with the connection the API communication between app and router could be the reason why you have some issues as described. You can clear the app cache if on android to help with some of these issues. Otherwise, you can report the problem in-app by shaking your device and submitting an instabug log to the app support team.
