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Forum Discussion

ChemicalGilroy's avatar
Aug 11, 2018

How to Launch Vulnerability Scan?

As the title says, how can I launch a vulnerability scan with netgear armor on my NightHawk R7000P? There is nowhere in the menu to launch one and I have had it since launch and no scan has been performed.

33 Replies

  • Just wondering if anybody has any new updates on this issue. I am approximately 11 days in to a 30 day free trial and my Netgear Armor portal indicates no vulnerability scans performed to date. I have installed the local version on my laptop and phone. I can run the vulnerability scan locally on these 2 devices and the status appears in the detail view on the Netgear Armor portal. There is no evidence of any other vulnerability scan being performed. I don’t see this status changing any time soon. I am trying to make an informed decision about buying this product when the trial ends. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

    • StevenOrbi's avatar
      StevenOrbi
      Tutor
      I believe that the vulnerability scan won’t run against Windows PCs running bitdefender. The software on the router does run scans against other devices like AV receivers, streaming devices, security cameras etc. I found that a reboot of my router kicked off the vulnerability scan and afterwards it runs about every 7 days.

      So it seemed the initial install didn’t reboot router and the reboot set the normal schedule in motion.

      The scan definitely identifies problems on several devices which I have since patched. Also the product picks up malicious urls that any device tries to access.

      I think for the price the product is useful and worth having.
      • Bogey4's avatar
        Bogey4
        Aspirant

        Thank you for the feedback. I just tried a reboot through the Nighthawk app but don’t see anything yet. I will give it a day and then try a hard reboot. Thanks again.

  • Long thread here and no feedback from Netgear.  Once a vulnerability has been found on a device (AV Receiver in this case), when will another vulnerability scan be run?  I have patched said receiver and it hasn't been rescanned since initial Armor install through the Orbi app.

    • DexterJB's avatar
      DexterJB
      NETGEAR Moderator

      Hi StevenOrbi, please see my previous response:

       

      Hi all, adding to this, when a device is added to Orbi or Nighthawk router running Armor the scan should be completed at the time of it being added. Once the first scan is completed the device will get added to a scan queue and a vulnerability scan will occur once a week. If the time comes for a particular device to be scanned for vulnerabilities and that device is not online or connected to that router's network then the scan will be skipped and the device will be added to the bottom of the queue. The device that is on the bottom of the queue will have to wait for all other devices to be scanned before it gets around to it again.

       

      Dexter

      • StevenOrbi's avatar
        StevenOrbi
        Tutor
        As you can see from screen shot the scan hasn’t run in 16 days.
  • For what it's worth, Bitdefender Total Security has an option on the left hand side called "Protection".  Click that and then look for Vulnerability section.  If you see that, click on "Vulnerability Scan".  That will launch the scan and you'll get results from that afterwards.  As for updating the "Last Vulnerability Scan" field in the Netgear Armor dashboard, it takes a while.  I suspect the weekly scan mentioned in other comments is required for that.  When I click on Update after clicking on the ellipsis icon for my listed device, it just says "... the command is pending."  

     

    As for results, the BitDefender UI should give you the information you need, whether or not there are actual vulnerabilities.

  • I installed Bitdefender on my Mac Pro. There is no application or icon or anything other than an "uninstall" folder in Applications. So not only can I not start a manual scan, I can't even look at anything such as logs. How is one to know if the tool is even doing anything or whether it ever did anything? Trust? I've never used Bitdefender before, but it has very good reviews. I'm assuming that the Netgear Armor variant is some crippled version of the Bitdefender. Also, having to use the lame app to "manage" this is really annoying as well. I'm going to let this sit for a week or so but most likely I'll be removing it. This tool is supposed to make me feel more comfortable not less.

    • Orbi-Roc's avatar
      Orbi-Roc
      Luminary

      Hi there BinkyTheClown . You and I have the same router, and I also have two MacBooks on my network, so we can compare notes.

       

      My advice - do not, at  least no yet, install Bitdefender Total Security on your MacBook. As for Netgear Armor, if the installation process was successful, then your Armor on your Orbi will protect ALL devices connected to your network. But if you have devices (phones, tables and laptops) that will be taken on the road (...and off the network), then you're being offered to install BD Total Security. On Apple devices, I wouldn't bother. On Windows devices, the verdict is still out for me. My experience was not disastrous but certainly not without hiccups. Given that I'm still young in my 90-day trial period, I'll wait a bit before I install BD Total Security on Win10 computers.

       

      Now back to your Netgear Armor. You have to activate Armor and you can only do that, for some strange reasons, with an iPhone, Android phone ... You have to download the app from the app store applicable to your device in order to activate Armor on your router.

       

      Hope this helps. Take care.

       

       

       

      • Marvin7xx's avatar
        Marvin7xx
        Initiate

        hi. I have BitDefender total security already installed on my MacBook Pro 2017 and W10 devices - main hiccup being blocks to intranet pages for my HP printer.    i haven't had any problems with BD on my MBP.

        installed Armor free trial via latest Orbi update.   not sure i understood quite what it was for (if it is the gatekeeper and i no longer need to run av on any of my LAN based devices, that might be worth paying for). however, it is giving me anxiety because:

        (a) i can't schedule a vulnerability scan, therefore i don't know if that is the root of my problems

        (b) i have a synology DS 918+. since installing armor it has twice blocked my router's IP address stating 10 attempts to login via ssh within 5 minutes.  MAYBE its just the armor scan. i don't know.  wasted couple of hours trying to work it out and have given up

        (d) vulnerabiilty scan has pulled up the TP link router bridged to my Orbi which is the SamKnows whitebox.  "high risk". scary. sam knows say it's ok, ssh is a bit out of date but as it's not accessible from outside my lan its not an issue.  however, i'm now worried..

        (c) if i wanted to buy it, seems pricing model includes for the "free" total security installs. i've already got subscriptions to that.. so it's too dear (not available it seems as an add on to existing BitDefender subscription

         

         

  • Christian_R's avatar
    Christian_R
    NETGEAR Employee Retired

    Hello ChemicalGilroy

     

    Netgear Armor automatically runs a scan upon launch and continues to run weekly scans. The result of your weekly scan appears below the "Vulnerability Assessment" section. 

     

     

    ~Christian 

    • JohnBaltimore's avatar
      JohnBaltimore
      Tutor

      My router has been installed for almost two weeks and it has not done a scan. What's up? How do I force a scan?

       

      I'm thinking I won't be continuing this service after the 90 day trial. Seems pretty crappy. I can't manually start a scan?!

       

      What if my network was infected and I think I cleaned it, but I want to scan again to make sure. I have to wait a week? That's crazy!

      • ControlledKhaos's avatar
        ControlledKhaos
        Initiate

        I totally agree with JohnBaltimore.  If the software is supposed to scan a device automatically it does not reflect that that has occurred.  Futhermore, in the case of a Windows device which does permit a manual scan, the Netgear Armor software still does not reflect that that scan has occurred.  What am I missing here???