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CMoneyTrading's avatar
CMoneyTrading
Aspirant
Jul 12, 2024

RBRE960 - Armor blocks access to Walmart and Discord app (July 2024)

Recently, after I noticed the Armor app went from being branded as Bitdefender to Netgear Armor, access to the Walmart app and Discord app is blocked when using the Orbi Wifi. If I turn Armor off or ...
CMoneyTrading's avatar
CMoneyTrading
Aspirant
Jul 11, 2024

Recently any phone that uses the Orbi Wifi cannot connect to the Walmart app. Walmart.com is fine, but the app will not connect. If we go off the Wifi and to mobile data, works again.

Tried to reboot, power cycle but no luck.

 

How do I clear out whatever the issue is so we can use the Walmart app on the wifi again?

thanks 

CrimpOn's avatar
CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Jul 12, 2024
CMoneyTrading wrote:

Recently any phone that uses the Orbi Wifi cannot connect to the Walmart app. Walmart.com is fine, but the app will not connect. If we go off the Wifi and to mobile data, works again.

(once I saw "Free Trial" I lost interest in Armor and have never enabled it.......)

 

Could you please provide more specifics about how the Walmart App fails to connect?  Such as

  • Is an error message displayed?
  • Is there some indication in Armor (on the Orbi 'app') about this?
  • Is it possible on the Orbi app to temporarily disable Armor to see if that changes the situation?

My understanding is that Apple, Android, and Windows implementations of MAC address randomizing are able to distinguish between "home" and "not home".  The intention of this feature is to prevent unwanted tracking of where a mobile device has connected to WiFi.  (aha.  This phone was at Starbucks at 8am, then at the airport at 10am, then in Chicago at .....)  Disabling this feature when the mobile device is at home results in the device getting the same LAN IP address every time (because the WiFi MAC address remains the hardware MAC address.)

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    Jul 12, 2024

    (displaying even more ignorance.......)

     

    Exactly which Walmart app is this?  Walmart Money Card? or...............

  • CMoneyTrading's avatar
    CMoneyTrading
    Aspirant
    Jul 12, 2024
    • Is an error message displayed?   In the Walmart app, it just says no internet connection while on Wifi.
    • Is there some indication in Armor (on the Orbi 'app') about this? Nothing triggers an alert in Armor. 
    • Is it possible on the Orbi app to temporarily disable Armor to see if that changes the situation? YES -  that is the culprit! I disabled Armor in the Orbi app, opened the Walmart app and it worked perfectly again while in Wifi.

     

    So... now we know the issue. The newly upgraded Netgear Armor (used to just say Bitdefender) is blocking access to the Walmart app, while triggering zero alerts so I can't override them and mark it as acceptable. 

     

    Now what?  lol