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

Forum Discussion

Ghostdragon87's avatar
Ghostdragon87
Tutor
May 06, 2023

Raxe300 HTTPS on Router

So I just got the RAXE300 about a month ago to upgrade from my rax40 that was starting to fail. I was recently told by a friend that I should enable HTTPS for local connection via the web interface for better security but when I enable it I noticed the web interface gets a bit slower and some words/pictures don't seem to display properly sometimes.

So my question is does HTTPS really improve security at all if accessing the router via a browser is supposed to be a local connection? I can maybe understand snooping if you share your network with someone or if your accessing the web interface with a wifi connection which can be intercepted but I always use my pc with a ethernet connection to the router.

2 Replies

Sort By
  • FURRYe38's avatar
    FURRYe38
    Guru
    May 06, 2023

    If your the only one accessing the routers web page, then you don't need HTTPS. Only provides security to the routers web page using a web browser. 

  • michaelkenward's avatar
    michaelkenward
    Guru
    May 06, 2023
    Ghostdragon87 wrote:

    I was recently told by a friend that I should enable HTTPS for local connection via the web interface for better security but when I enable it I noticed the web interface gets a bit slower and some words/pictures don't seem to display properly sometimes.

     

    Did your friend explain why they thought https would help with local access? https is certainly advisable for pages you go out and find on the Internet. But that does not apply if you are talking about local access to the browser graphical user interface (GUI).

     

    Where did you enable https? If it was Web Services Management, many people have found that that is a good way to cripple a router. 

     

    If you read the manual, you'll see that it doesn't explain why you might want to enable that. One theory is that Netgear out it in because people like your friend kept complaining that http was dangerously insecure, without realising that they were talking rubbish.

     

    You do need https for things like Anywhere Access. That's why it is enforced by default and isn't something that you can turn off.

     

    You can also enable https for remote access to ReadySHARE. Check the manual for details of how to do that.