Overnight device activity consuming allowed time

Netgear support has a case open investigating this issue.  So far, no updates.  I'll post any useful info here as I get updates.

Thank you, really appreciate it.  You can imagine my kids are not to happy with me!!!

Believe it or not, it's been over 6 months and Netgear Support is still trying to troubleshoot this.  Repeatedly described the problem, how to reproduce it, and sent Orbi debug logs, yet still not resolved.

Almost a year now, and the case is still open. The people at Netgear that I've dealt with behave like a bunch of bumbling fools. For a command line utility they want me to run:

• Multiple times they sent me the wrong CPU type (M1 instead of Intel)
• The utility doesn't work as expected
• They can't explain basic parameters the utility needs

So many wasted emails and times with multiple front line clueless tech support people.

I guess there is still no update from Netgear?  I am having the same issue like many other Netgear users out there, and Netgear just REALLY DON'T CARE!!

No tangible progress. Because of the sheer incompetence of the Netgear support team, we've been trying since May 2022 to configure a utility called telnet to connect from one of my laptops to the Orbi router. This should've taken at most, a few days but due to remarkable ineptitude of Netgear support, it has take 8 months of back and forth emails/calls! A couple of days ago, we made a breakthrough and I was able to telnet from my laptop to the Orbi router. Now, I have to wait for Netgear engineer to do a remote session to see what's happening. Who knows how long that will take. My case has been open for over a year, so what's a few more months?

Thanks for following up on this, I'm not sure why they would need to Telnet to your router (Telnet is just a way to login to look at the router, like a command prompt on Windows or xterm on mac), this has to be a fundamental issue with the software that impacts everyone...  Devices chatter to the internet to check the status of things, so long as the device is switched on and running this is going to happen.  Ideally Netgear (being networking "experts") would figure out the IP addresses of service accounts (like Windows update for example) and the whitelist these so that they don't consume the kids allowance...  The idea of this service is good but it's fundamentally flawed and useless as far as I can tell.  I have a cheap TP-link router that does all of this for free and does a much better job (it's actually a darn nice device for the money).  Anyway, I voted with my wallet:

Your post came at the perfect time to remind me to cancel the subscription!

I'm quite familiar with telnet, I've used it since the early 90s. But I was shocked when Netgear insisted I install it, given that it's basically obsolete since it's insecure compared to alternatives like ssh. Anyway, I think Netgear wants to do a remote session via TeamViewer, telnet to my router, get live diagnostics, while I repro the problem. State of the art.

Wondering if maybe they wanna capture debug logs. Telnet was removed back in mid v3 FW versions years ago. So it's not seen on the debug page. Unless they have a backdoor method, I don't think they will get telnet working normally. 

Right, I do believe ssh was also mentioned in another post I saw once upon a time; I'm surprised there not using that!?

Not sure what there is to debug, you can see in the app what traffic is being permitted and hence using the allotted hours, simply go to Profile and then history.  As a parent why can't I whitelist the internet chatter so the kids gets a fair shot at using their hours?  Again, in the absence of any feedback from Netgear I assume they don't care and rely on new subscribers to figure out that it's a service that (1) Doesn't care about the people paying their salaries and (2) Makes no difference if it works as advertised on not...

Ya, heard talk of SSH as well. Not sure why there not using yet. 

Debug logs can get other data for diagnostic and troubleshooting the NG can look at. Can't see that on the face of some things. Need the behind the scenes data sometimes. 

Makes sense.  What doesn't make sense is the lack of action on Netgear's part; this is really a fundamental issue in it's usefulness; I'm flabbergasted at the lack of attention to detail.

FURRYe38 Debug logs were sent over a period of months from Feb-Jun 2022. When the root cause of the problem didn't reveal itself in the debug logs, the next step was for Netgear to telnet. That took the better part of 6 months to set up, thanks to the cluelessness of Netgear support. Telnet is not on the debug page. I was provided a program called telnetenable which I had to run on my laptop, presumably to activate telnet on the router. So after 6 months of futility, last week a telnet connection was established between my laptop and the Orbi router. Now I'm awaiting a callback from Netgear engineering to repro the problem, observe, collect diagnostics via telnet.

Longtrail no ssh, just telnet. Once I connected via telnet, the opening screen revealed a Linux variant based on busybox. Didn't go any further than logging into the router. 

Ok. Keep on NG about this. Hopefully they can get what they need from telnet.

KevinLiT 

Here's the Orbi OS.  About 215 processing running.

Very nice, I see you're straight  in as the root account...