Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

schumaku
Guru

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience


@inspectorgadjet wrote:

Still no way to exclude guest devices


This should be feasible - under the requirement that guest devices are making use of the guest WiFi SSID. Just a question of the integration depth in my opinion.

 


@inspectorgadjet wrote:

still shows iPhones in the list of devices that need the software installed  ....


Installing the Armor App is key for the Armor system on the devices supporting it.

 

Can this be related to the nightmare Apple introduced with this stupid random MAC tin hat feature? How shall the Armor software on the router distinguish between one of yours vs. one of your guests device? The answer can be installing the Armor client - this allows to identify your trusted devices.

 


@inspectorgadjet wrote:

... protection level score, ....


Whatever wonderful KPI the designers have specified and implemented. Some customers feel better if the KPI are high.

 

Message 51 of 76
inspectorgadjet
Apprentice

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

That's the problem though...even after installing the app on iOS devices it still lists them in the devices that need the app installed so the protection level score is reduced...if the thing worked properly, my score would be a lot higher.

 

Never mind that the app doesn't offer any real protection on iOS....the only thing it can do is offer web browsing protection if you enable a vpn.

Message 52 of 76
WinterMute
Star

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

@Christian_R I think I'm done - I think this experience has trashed my router and after 15 years of being on the Netgear team, buying and recommending your hardware, I can't handle this degree of trouble.  I have a business to run and plenty of other things to do without having to go through the wringer with this router thanks to Armor. 

 

I've been at the point now where any time I want to reboot the router, it will not generate an Internet connection without me having to perform a factory reset, walk through the entire setup with defaults, and then manually go back in and customize it.

 

I had to do that again today and it took me about an hour to do everything, whereupon I noticed where my router might be broken:

 

The day I finally got Armor removed, did a factory reset, and manually reconfigured everything, the Router's internal clock got stuck on that day and time.  I only happened to notice it today, because I thought I'd look through the logs and I noticed only a handful of entries that stoped at September 18 2020, which was logged as the exact sime time on the router--the router's clock wasn't moving past that minute and I couldn't get it to sync time with another server like time.windows.com or time.nist.gov - the page would crash if I tried to apply changes.

 

It's very frustrating to try to re-do the router using the Nighthawk mobile app and have it say, "We'll activate Armor for you if you qualify for a trial", and offer me no way to say no...then when the setup fails, I have to go to the browser.  While using the browser gives me the ability to opt out of Armor, I then get pop-up ads in the admin interface to buy your parental controls service, then to buy Armor, and I have to swat those down to be able to finish setting things up.

 

I can't tell if auto-updating the firmware is broken because of the clock issue, or if it's just broken in general, but I did manage to get the firmware updated.  I also managed to re-route the NTP sync to time.nist.gov, and so far it looks like it's tracking, I also have a bunch of log entries from December 31, 1969, at 7PM and logging into the router's admin panel triggers this to be repeatedly entered in the logs:

 

[DoS attack: Fraggle Attack] from source 72.31.130.17,port 67 Sunday, Jan 03,2021 12:40:32

Model: RAX200|Nighthawk Tri-band AX12 12-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router
Message 53 of 76
HarryGh
Guide

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

Why is this even a thing anymore. I had trouble of intermittent internet over six months, requiring many resets every day.

Remove armor from the device, and am trouble free for 7 months.

 

Message 54 of 76
CanadianGuy
Guide

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

After some heroics to reach support re: Armor issues, it finally came out in the wash (and 5+ hours of data collection) that both Netgear and Bitdefender are selling subscriptions without having complete integration between the 2. After producing the purchase confirmation/activation email, Netgear had absolutely no record of my subscription. Apparently the only way to have Armor work was to do a 'shock' reset of the router with latest firmware. Issue now sent to engineering with hopes of another firmware update 😞

Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 55 of 76
inspectorgadjet
Apprentice

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

I think it's still a thing because some of us try to be optimistic about having fully functional devices and systems. As I mentioned, after the new firmware and app update I thought I might as well give it another try since I still have 5 months left on my subscription but sadly there's not much improvement.

As of this morning I have disabled Armor again, because once it started doing the vulnerability scans on my devices, my router crashed again. It can only be Armor causing it now, because on the new firmware I've had a stable router and it's only had trouble again once the scans started.

Message 56 of 76
schumaku
Guru

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience


@CanadianGuy wrote:

... both Netgear and Bitdefender are selling subscriptions without having complete integration between the 2. After producing the purchase confirmation/activation email, Netgear had absolutely no record of my subscription. ...


Netgear does sell Netgear Armor licenses (under some terms), while Bitdefeder is selling Bitdefender/Total Security licenses (under different terms). Obviously the license base differs and so does the integration e.g. non-Armor devices won't be integrated into the Netgear environment. Or isn't this not obvious enough?

Message 57 of 76
John_Ba
Luminary

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

I find the biggest problem is how slow the updates to the basic program are in being introduced in Armour. I have problem that's been fixed in a version some weeks old now but not yet available in NG Armour.
Message 58 of 76
CanadianGuy
Guide

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

No, these are not differing service-level licenses; these are for the identical intended service targets--Netgear Armor subscription with no extras. It turns out through the support escalation that purchasing a subscription through the user-interface (i.e. desktop) or in-app can go through either vendor, which is what caused the deep problems in my case. No, not so obvious.

Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 59 of 76
KR20004
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Is this thread still monitored/being read?

I've had it for a year; however, after the firmware update in the summer, my computers get randomly disconnected from the router; however, the router itself is still connected to the internet.

I thought this was a firmware installation error, but after Netgear Armor expired, the symptoms went away.

After a few months, I renewed my subscription; however, the computers are starting to drop again. It appears Netgear Armor is causing my devices to randomly disconnect for a few minutes. I'm not sure why.

Anti-Theft doesn't appear to work, and NetGear Armor appears to show extra devices (see my other two threads).

 

Overall, I love the idea of Netgear Armor, but if it wasn't for special promo code & the Total Security packaged with it, I would ask for a refund

Message 60 of 76
waresoft
Star

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

My Armor experience:  Overpriced crap with ZERO support for an annual fee.


Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 61 of 76
genglehardt
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Since purchasing R7000P with Armor (prior R7000 did not have Armor) all my printers print out a single nonsensical 3 or 4 line heading on four separate pieces of paper about once per week.

HEAD / HPPT/1.1

Host:  192.168.1.5:9100

User-Agent:  curl/7.59.0

Accept: */*

Is an example of one of the print-outs.  With 4 printers this is a signficant waste of paper.  Please find a way to eliminate this paper waste.

 

Gary

 

Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 62 of 76
genglehardt
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Since purchasing R7000P with Armor (prior R7000 did not have Armor) all my printers print out a single nonsensical 3 or 4 line heading on four separate pieces of paper about once per week.

HEAD / HPPT/1.1

Host:  192.168.1.5:9100

User-Agent:  curl/7.59.0

Accept: */*

Is an example of one of the print-outs.  With 4 printers this is a signficant waste of paper.  Please find a way to eliminate this paper waste.

 

Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 63 of 76
Christian_R
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Hi genglehardt,

 

I would check to see if your R7000 is due for a firmware update.

 

Christian 

Message 64 of 76
BruKat
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

@genglehardt 

I had same issues and this was my fix

The page you are seeing is being generated by Netgear Armor weekly scans.

The Netgear Armor / Bit Defender team will need to update their scanner.  It appears currently they are sending scan commands to your printer to try to "hack it", but some of those commands are being sent over ports that are interpreted as "print" commands.

 

If your printer allows you to block IP addresses from printing, you could likely block any printing from 192.168.1.1.  IF it doesn’t, then either it will need to be Off when the Armor scan occurs, or there will need to be an update to the Armor Scanner.

I know Netgear often updates the Bitdefender Armor scanner in newer firmware...so make sure you are on the latest firmware for your router, as it may contain this fix.  If not, I'd open a case w/ Netgear and even Bit Defender, they'll need to have their teams provide an update.

Hope it helps

Message 65 of 76
Jen4K
Initiate

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

I've had this router at least a year now, no issues, no "Armor" installed, I use the parental controls with Circle (First Generation) app. Works great. Love it.

 

About 5 or 6 days ago, we suddenly had issues with devices without internet, or hanging, or lagging. The router's internet signal indicates incoming internet is fine. This has never happened before.  Before, if/ when the internet goes out, it's because our internet provider is hiccuping, and we see the red light on the router indicating this.  Not this time; the light is white and reassurring and connections are blinking white as if data is passing along. So this was a new and annoying occurrence. Out of ideas, we turned off the router, waited, and turned it back on.

 

When it came back on, nothing worked. It seemed everything in the router had been reset - I had to log in from my computer to routerlogin.net or whatever, reset the Admin password to my prior password, re-enter the network SSID names I'd used before, set up passwords, the whole nine yards. Start from scratch. I also lost ALL my Circle information, but that might be unrelated.

 

That's the first time I noted this "Armor" stuff on my router.  What is this Armor stuff? I wondered. Okay, whatever. I had no intention of signing up for the paid subscription but if it's not bothering me, fine.

 

Since then - I have had to recycle the power on the Netgear router no fewer than 6 times, due again to devices not connecting, or video being watched on a computer on YouTube hanging or lagging, etc.  The router never "lost its brains" as it did the 1st time - but this situation is ANNOYING to say the least.  I attribute this continued performance problem to the Armor thing, as it's the only thing different. Not only that, but I have been connecting my home router to safe DNS servers (with OpenDNS) for years now, and I suddenly noticed no traffic when I go to my OpenDNS dashboard these last 5-6 days. In the router settings, it no longer shows the family safe DNS servers anymore. When I tried to change them back to the Family Safe OpenDNS server domains again, it tells me I'm not allowed to do that - I have to disable parental controls first.  What ??  since when ??

 

Finally today, after turning off / turning on the router AGAIN due to "no internet" problems -- I searched for this online and found the (not very intuitive) way to turn OFF Armor on my router.  I turned it OFF and I will now see if I can connect my router back to these two "SAFE" DNS domains, and see if my internet issues in these recent past few days continue or disappear.  I sure hope they disapppear.  This has been completely unacceptable and hugely annoying.  I work at home, I need my router to work reliably, which up until this past week, my Netgear Nighthawk has done.  

 

 

Model: R6700|Nighthawk AC1750 Smart WiFi Router
Message 66 of 76
BruKat
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

I have had nothing but problems with Armor and the Nighthawk itself.

Got rid of it in less than a year and went with Linksys with no issues.

Bye Netgear

Message 67 of 76
MimiTN
Guide

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Hi - 

 

I'd love to share my Netgear Armor experience.

 

I have an RBR750, purchased 6 months ago to replace a Netgear Nighthawk to gain mesh and home device network security, firmware is latest.  I have the same issue on all of my streaming devices - Armor on, buffering, Armor off, no buffering AT ALL.  It is pretty clear Armor is causing the problem.  And it's pretty clear from all of the posts in the forums that Armor is 1. confusing/frustrating to install/monitor (the app is horrid: very sparse Armor installation instructions, and Armor, when installed and on, the app doesn't even reflect devices correctly, yet the website does), 2. causes dropping or throttling of your internet connection or is doing some kind of scan that interferes with it and 3. that Netgear support has degraded to the point that now you actually have to pay them to get an answer to an issue they created if you've owned your product more than 90 days (and good luck then even finding a tech that can answer your question and even more good luck getting a solution because this situation has existed since this partnership).  There is no amount of rebooting, uninstalling/reinstalling, etc. that fixes it and apparently, it's a known issue that they so far haven't been able to fix or are unwilling to address.

 

It is absolutely ridiculous that Netgear/Bitdefender released this device in this state.  Netgear should offer refunds to their customers for this router, since a big selling point was the Bitdefender being built in and working.  I am now not a fan of Netgear, nor Bitdefender.  So unfortunate after probably 20 years of owning Netgear products, but my next router will not be a Netgear and I will definitely think twice before purchasing any Bitdefender product! 

 

Message 68 of 76
John_Ba
Luminary

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Some other things are these posts are totally ignored and Netgear with Armor are pushing a really old version of Bitdefender. Bitdefender is a quite good product but give it to Netgear and Armor is what you get!

Message 69 of 76
BruKat
Aspirant

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

@MimiTN 

Excellent post. I tried also to no avail to get issues fixed.

I have always had Netgear, for the first time i switched to Lynsky and it is an awesome router with no brain bleeds trying to figure things out

Message 70 of 76
MimiTN
Guide

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

After zero help or response from Netgear, I returned my Orbi router to Costco and bought a different brand. I now have full time security that works (cheaper than the non working Armor by the way), no buffering, support I can call without additional fees, and internet speeds that match what I’m paying for.  It’s been installed for 30 days and it just works.  I will NEVER buy Netgear again, router or otherwise.  I’d suggest anyone considering buying a Netgear product, buy it at Costco so you can return it, because you will definitely have buyer’s remorse.  Nothing worse than a company selling a defective product that doesn’t perform as advertised and then refusing to give customers tech support unless they pay for it.  If they would actually let customers ask questions, listen to their concerns (which might help them fix their issues with this router) and advise on how they intend to fix the obvious issues with this router, they might salvage some relationships.  But Netgear, quite frankly, has shown they value money over customers.  And when that happens, you better run as fast as you can away from a company.

Message 71 of 76
John_Ba
Luminary

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

I have a Orbi set but am not in a position tom change them. But would never buy Netgear again and indeed though on a smaller scale I had replace a network router so jumped to another maker this time. I have also advised a number of people in organisations and family to avoid them so there poor product and support does have a cost to them. Reviews and comments I have put on them and have been marked as useful a number of times. The old view that one customer poorly served can cost you multiple future sales is really true.

Message 72 of 76
CanadianGuy
Guide

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

What was the brand/model of the router you switched to? I've only chose Netgear because of the Armor subscription--since I have a ton of IoT devices.What is the type of full time security you mentioned?  Asking for a friend ...;)

Model: R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 73 of 76
MimiTN
Guide

Re: NETGEAR Armor Experience

Eero Pro 6, Eero+ security

Message 74 of 76
Jen4K
Initiate

Re: Share Your NETGEAR Armor Experience

Just a follow-up - since removing or disabling the "Armor" thingy from my netgear router, these issues of which I wrote (hanging, not communicating, having to cycle power on the router continually, etc.) were gone and have remained gone. Yay! 

Message 75 of 76
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