NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Disable Netgear cloud management on R6230
I bought a Netgear AC1200 WiFi Router (Model no. R6230) for use in my employer's lab, and I need to figure out how to prevent it from "phoning home" to Netgear. Whenever I login to the web interface,...
ichabod wrote:
I bought a Netgear AC1200 WiFi Router (Model no. R6230) for use in my employer's lab, and I need to figure out how to prevent it from "phoning home" to Netgear.
A router does not "phone home" unless you are using a future that needs it. Anywhere Access, for example, does that as nmeeded. (See below.)
ichabod wrote:
Whenever I login to the web interface, it goes through some process of trying to connect to a Netgear server, and if it can reach it, it demands that I set up an account with Netgear so it can be remotely managed.
What is the address of the page you land on when you see this message? And what are you doing when it happens? There are various ways of launching the "web interface". (That is actually an internal browser graphical user interface (GUI) rather than a place in the outside world.)
While Netgear tries to force everyone to use an app on a mobile device to setup and manage a device, experienced users avoid that approach. They use a browser and a wired connection . Is that what you are doing?
If you have enabled Remote Management, now known as Anywhere Access, then you need to set up an account on the Netgear Cloud. But that is a one-off move.
Manuals are always a good place to start.
Visit the support pages:
Support | NETGEAR
Feed in your model number and check the documentation for your hardware.
Check the section in the manual Set Up Remote Management.
If you don't want to use that, and it is enabled, turn it off. If you are trying to get in through that route, then complete the process as directed.
(Sorry
Michael, thank you for your suggestion. It looks like the Remote Management option documented in the user manual doesn't exist in firmware version v1.1.0.110_1.0.1, which seems to be the latest available. (Screen shot attached.)
Perhaps the router does not phone home, but the web page's JavaScript has the browser trying to reach assets on a Netgear server, and when it can, the web interface redirects the browser to the Netgear site, insisting on a login. The only way I can get to the web interface on the browser is if I disconnect the router's WAN interface. I am connecting to the router through its Wi-Fi. I can't think of any engineering reason to present a different set of menus to LAN users on Wi-Fi than on Ethernet.
Network trace showing accesses to Netgear servers.
ichabod wrote:
Network trace showing accesses to Netgear servers.
Which makes me none the wiser.
Maybe it is just checking for firmware updates.
ichabod wrote:
Michael, thank you for your suggestion. It looks like the Remote Management option documented in the user manual doesn't exist in firmware version v1.1.0.110_1.0.1, which seems to be the latest available. (Screen shot attached.)
Could be. The release notes should warn of changes like that.
I am puzzled by the IP address in the screenshot.
192.168.11.1?
That is not typical, which suggests that something else may be going on on your network.
Is there any reason why you did not use the default settings?
ichabod wrote:
Perhaps the router does not phone home, but the web page's JavaScript has the browser trying to reach assets on a Netgear server..
Hard to tell without more details.
What are these "assets on a Netgear server"?
That and the wonky IP address mean that I am lost.
ichabod wrote:
I can't think of any engineering reason to present a different set of menus to LAN users on Wi-Fi than on Ethernet.
Me neither, which is why I don't see that. Wifi and Ethernet show the same browser graphical user interface for me.
Another hint that there may be an issue at your end.
I have the LAN side of the router set to subnet 192.168.11.0/24 instead of the default of
I192.168.1.0/24 because I am using it in a lab and need to be able to differentiate it from a several other devices that I plug into or connect to. Also, my household LAN is using 192.168.1.0/24, and that subnet showing up would be a warning sign that my work computer is plugged into the wrong thing.
By "assets" in a trace of web traffic, I mean things like JavaScripts, icons & other graphics, CSS stylesheets, etc., that are needed by the web page I am viewing. If my browser is open on the router's web page at 192.168.11.1, the web page should not be telling my browser to fetch stuff from accounts.netgear.com or google.com. I don't know how good JavaScript sandboxing is, but the opportunity is there for Netgear and Google to invade my privacy -- or, in this case, snoop in my employer's lab. (I'm not saying that they are doing this, just that the potential is there, and I feel that is unacceptable.)
I just realized today that I am still eligible for support from Netgear, so I've opened a ticket with them. Hopefully they'll be able to help me.
