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, 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. I have to disconnect its WAN interface and make sure that my web browser has no other usable path the the Internet in order to do anything with the web interface (check connection status, change an IP address, modify port forwarding rules. It is a major pain in the neck, and I cannot find a way to disable this behavior. I am running the most recent version of firmware (1.1.0.110). Does anyone have a solution that doesn't involve selling it on EBay or destroying it with a hammer?
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.)
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.
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.
Model: R6230|AC1200 Smart WiFi Router Dual Band Gigabit
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?
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.
Model: R6230|AC1200 Smart WiFi Router Dual Band Gigabit
Sounds like you have some special needs that mean that you are, as they say, off piste when it comes to your settings. It might need some specialist knowledge to help you to deal with issues.
It may also be that your configuration, with separate subnets blocking the browser graphical user interface (GUI), means that you will not be able to manage the thing in the usual way.
Then there is the fact that your R6230 is a five-year old model somewhere near the bottom of the Netgear range.
I spent an hour or so on the phone with a Netgear support technician, who guided me through a factory reset and a few other things. I did end up having to authenticate to a Netgear server to finish setting up this router, which is something I did not want to do. The technician said that Netgear collects no information from the customer, and, indeed, the router seems to work even though the local login password is different from the one I used on the Netgear site, but the fact that the router has to "phone home" during setup is very distasteful to me. For my most recent project, I purchased three units of a competitor's router that seem to work just as well and didn't require me to send any information to the manufacturer.
