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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...
Kind of unrelated, but I think it needs to be said:
I'm seeing a lot of Netgear Armor hate on here and maybe it's warranted.
But in my opinion, you're not seeing the full picture.
Sure, maybe Armor itself is horrible. I haven't run into any issues with it yet.
However, the important thing to note is that for $70 per year, you also get to install the accompanying BitDefender Total Security on UNLIMITED DEVICES!
If you purchase BitDefender Total Security directly from BitDefender, you only get 5 devices for that price... and that's just the first year. The second year they're going to charge you a renewal rate of $120 or something like that.
I may be getting rid of my R7000 sooner than later, but as long as they let me keep renewing, I'm keeping Netgear Armor simply for the discoutned BitDefender subscription.
dagu599I agree with you the Armor feature is great value for the money when you compare it with the price you pay for BitDefender Total Intenet Security from the BD website or BestBuy.
I would also like to address some of the hate here and blame on Netgear Armor hopefully my explanation will help those users having issues with Armor. Netgear Armor just like any other internet security software out there block threats and websites based on definitions and known blacklists some from the public domain some from proprietory blacklists that Bitdefender has. So there is no way that Armor would block all of the traffic to the internet otherwise what would be the point of having it installed if you cannot browse anything.
Let's address reasons why the disable option may not work or why the traffic to all sites may be blocked.
- Netgear Armor enables/disable status depends on Netgear cloud and BD cloud infrastructure that how the status of Armor is detected, both of these clouds use the Netgear SSO to login into the systems and link Armor to your Netgear SSO account/SN of product.
- The Netgear SSO uses a token like any other system that requires authentication and sometimes the token does not expire correctly or gets stuck so when you try to disable Armor you use the option in the NH or Orbi app and toggle it off but becue the sso token did not expire correctly or got stuck the disabling does not take effect.
- This is not a bug in the system it's just the nature of the system and token issues that may arise from internet connectivity issues, etc. that arise when things freeze up, etc.
- Rebooting or logging out of your NH or Orbi app and logging back in fixes that issue.
For cases where Internet traffic seems to be blocked keep in mind the following:
- Netgear Armor feature is installed on Netgear devices and that requires space and when Armor processes run they all require memory to operate.
- Routers are limited in their capacity when it comes to memory both system and ram. It's not a PC so you won't find a router that has 64GB of ram or something crazy like that, it's limited usually to 4GB or less in most cases and system memory/space is limited even more.
- Sometimes the issue of the internet traffic not going through could be related to the memory usage of the device especially in cases where you may have a device that is packed with tons of features like the R7000, RBR20, etc and not much system/RAM. I have been using Armor on the RBK50 Orbi system and RBK852 since it came out and never had any issues with it blocking internet traffic.
- Other reasons that the internet traffic may not work could be related to the websites you are visiting especially if the browser is using extensions that behave in a questionable way or websites that run active x and other applets and things in the background. If these are flagged by Armor the page may not load at all or it will partially load. If there is a site you trust that should not be blocked you can white list that site on your device using NH or Orbi app.
- Other problems could be related to the DNS issues to other internet problems you’re your router or isp modem/gateway.
So for anyone out there thinking that Armor is garbage and blame all problems on it please consider the above info and do some investigation as to what is the root cause of your problem. If you discover odd behavior or a bug or issues on your device please report it to Netgear support. Venting on community and keeping issues to yourself will not improve the feature or help fix the problem you are facing if Netgear support or engineering is not aware of the problem. Based on my experience with Armor 99% of the time issues such as all internet traffic being blocked are not related to Armor but some other underlying issue.
I understand your side of explanation on Netgear Armor. However, to deploy this kind of feature on their own hardware products(Orbi) that cause a lot of problems on end users is not acceptable, specifically on the testing/quality assurance. We're talking about well-known websites getting blocked. The issue is not well-supported by Netgear's support team themselves, which is why so many end users are frustrated. You cannot expect every end user to have an engineering/troubleshooting mind either. I think the main issue is something related to memory corruption that requires some certain of steps to clear it out.
It's ridiculous to expect users to perform troubleshooting of a problem caused by software embedded in the product. I don't have time for this non-sense. The router will go into the garbage and I will buy a different brand. I don't care what I have to pay to get a good router without problems (but it won't be a Netgear product!). I just want the damn thing to work.
Dont blame Netegar for user error here. If you set the router up via the web GUI you can stop Armor ever installing by simply clicking on the preference when the pop up comes and thats it. The app says it will install Armor if you read the infoprmation first ive never used the app as I have no need for it, but I'm sure the appn gives you an option to not install it, for whatever reason you need an app for a router that should be set and forget.
So try just setting the router up without using a app, doing a factory reset after updating firmware to get rid of issues that can occur after updating, yes even Merlin who makes the Asus fork reccomends this once in a while and heres the link to prove it https://www.snbforums.com/threads/factory-reset-merlin-firmware-help-please.64185/
Dont restore after a firmware update from a older image set up manually otherwise it can cause issues (on many routers) Armor has never been activated on my RAX120 and I'm fine with that but it asks you if you want it, no way does it does not sneak on board, so try to RTFM before proceeding, it's not that hard.
That's it. I finally gave up on my R7000.
After the firmware update from about May 2020, the router became extremely unstable.
I thought it was my ISP, though, so I stuck with the router for over a year.I tried everything, including resetting the router to defaults. Nothing helped.
Every day, Wifi would disconnect every device in the house, including streaming sticks for at least 2 minutes.
Hardwire network still worked - router logs showed nothing.
I finally bought a replacement router ASUS RT-AX88U.
WOW! What a difference.
Haven't had a single issue.
Netgear, you need to get your act together.
I used to swear by Netgear... Now I swear at Netgear.
