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Pop quiz for Fr


G+_Dean Chauvin
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Pop quiz for Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ ....  you have to buy a consumer wifi router today.  Which one do you go with? Asus RT-AC68U?  Netgear NightHawk AC1900?  Something else?

 

What is everyone else using?  There have been lots of security issues with these models that have come to light lately.  I was leaning towards one of the Asus models.  But I'm not sure now.

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Asus is one of the ones that is easily hackable and never update their fw. Same with Belkin. :( Most of these generic consumer routers never get new fw past the first year.

I agree the best is to get one easily upgradable with alternate code or to create your own firewall with openbsd or similar with an older desktop and attach your router behind it.

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After the ASUS scare, I checked my ASUS RT-N16 and clicked the button to upgrade the firmware in its administration page and it said it was up to date, but when I checked the firmware version on ASUS's page, it was higher, so I updated it manually.  I think some of the hacks fool the admin page into never thinking it needs an update.

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Until the Linksys 802.11ac compatible dd-wrt route comes out, I'd look at Buffalo Technologies products. Some of their products support dd-wrt image as their stock image and they support upgrade from the OSS project. I think they also contribute to the project too which is cool if they do. We need more companies like this. 

 

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless#open-source-dd-wrt

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As a rule of thumb I don't by a router that doesn't have an opensource alternative OS support. Most consumer router companies don't support their routers for very long. I tend to see about only 1.5 - 2.5 years of support from most companies. Open source projects often keep support around for much longer.

The only time companies do security updates is when the router is really new or when the company has egg on their face. A perfect example is the recent Cisco / Linksys exploit that allows internal IP to reconfigure the router without authentication.

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