Netgear just made me really appreciate Asus and Merlin

[avtella]

I saw someone post this, yeah that would piss me off too lol.

 

[drinkingbird]

I have the latest firmware so I factory reset it. And went through setup process.

Would be ridiculous if true, not that I’m discounting your experience. The AC1200 if I recall uses the old GUI which unless things changed recently also didn’t force an account, well aside from the local admin account. Out of curiosity, mind showing the setup pages?

Different model router, but there is a screenshot here of exactly what I saw and description of the behavior I experienced.

Permanently Disable Forcing Netgear Account Login - R6330 (and all other models, for that matter)

I do not want to, and will not, and should not have to, be forced into logging into a Netgear account just to use MY router that I purchased. I'm not renting it from you, I don't have a contract with you, you don't need my personal information. How do I disable this PERMANENTLY? I shouldn't...

community.netgear.com

 

[drinkingbird]

View attachment 46691
I saw someone post this, yeah that would piss me off too lol.

Yup, that's the one.

Looks like it has been going on over a year and the link to the workaround has been deleted out of the Netgear kb. I did find said workaround in another thread, but accessing the setup URLs directly no longer bypasses it, it just keeps redirecting you until you unplug the WAN.

 

[avtella]

Yeah that’s the old GUI guess they added this new “feature” to it. They haven’t done it to the AX models.

 

[drinkingbird]

Yeah that’s the old GUI guess they added this new “feature” to it. They haven’t done it to the AX models.

Coming soon to an AX router near you.....

 

[avtella]

For now, doubt it, if anything they’d have started with the high end routers and moved down.

Lot of the experienced beta testers some of whom are pretty privacy conscious only join for the high end projects like the RAXE500 and most of those would let the NG team hear about if it happened on those models. They do listen to the testers more often than not at least in my experience regarding setup experience.

I wouldn’t mind an option to have an account and may actually create one but if I had no option to opt out I’d return the product…especially when there are ample options from the competition.

 

[To Infinity and Beyond]

Just bought a new ASUS router for my mom. The App's interface is really straightforward and easy to set up.

 

[Tech9]

As I said, it hurts a lot less when you make a wrong choice with $30 router and a lot more with $300 router, no matter what brand it is.

 

[bdub76]

I'm still a fan of old DD-WRT built by KONG. I ran it on my last two wireless routers before getting the AX86U. While I have most of the same options as DD-WRT, I still would rather have a WIFI 6 router cable of running DD-WRT or openwrt. I'm not a fan of Broadcom keeping everything closed.

 

[Tech9]

or openwrt

Netgear R7800 is one of the best home routers for openwrt. It was perhaps the best AC-class router ever made as well.

 

[bdub76]

Netgear R7800 is one of the best home routers for openwrt. It was perhaps the best AC-class router ever made as well.

And for some crazy reason they stopped making it.

Maybe we'll get good Qualcomm antennas for WIFI 7 with an open option.

 

[HWDan]

I have a RAX50, it doesn't have this account requirement either. I suspect it's all the cheaper Mediatek based routers all running pretty much the same firmware base that they've done this on. On the Netgear side, the cheapest I'd spring for would be the RAX20, broadcom based. It's < $100 in Canada so I assume a lot cheaper in the US.

 

[Tech9]

the cheapest I'd spring for would be the RAX20

And it looks like a Wi-Fi router!

 

[drinkingbird]

The Asus AX68U looks fairly normal. At least they aren't all going to "gaming" routers. Couple others aren't too bad, one or two red accents but not all the crazy stuff.

The ones with 6 or 8 antennas, I'm guessing they just converted from dual band antennas to single band to make it look cooler. Theoretically separate single band antennas are better but I doubt that was the main driver for it.

 

[bdub76]

The Asus AX68U looks fairly normal. At least they aren't all going to "gaming" routers. Couple others aren't too bad, one or two red accents but not all the crazy stuff.

The ones with 6 or 8 antennas, I'm guessing they just converted from dual band antennas to single band to make it look cooler. Theoretically separate single band antennas are better but I doubt that was the main driver for it.

Some of those are crazy. Where do you put it? Doesn't make the best use of space.

 

[drinkingbird]

Some of those are crazy. Where do you put it? Doesn't make the best use of space.

Ceiling. I'm sure it will blend in well.

 

[avtella]

AX88U looks pretty decent too, I like it much better than the 86U aesthetically, but the GT-AXE line at least to me just looks atrocious, childish. Maybe I’m too OCD about symmetry.

 

[drinkingbird]

AX88U looks pretty decent too, I like it much better than the 86U aesthetically, but the GT-AXE line at least to me just looks atrocious, childish. Maybe I’m too OCD about symmetry.

I always like the unifi ceiling mounted ones, very inconspicuous (if you disable the blue light ring) and focused most of the signal downward. Engenius made some that just looked like smoke detectors, not sure if they're still around.

 

[sfx2000]

And for some crazy reason they stopped making it.

chip supply chain did it in...

 

[sfx2000]

Next time I'm up there I can take a screen shot. But right after the screen where you have to change the admin password and create two security questions is where it checks internet then forces account login or creation. It redirects to a remote website (hence checking internet first and why pulling the wan works at defeating it, at least until they take the next step and say you can't log into the router config when the WAN is down).

Not fake news - this happens with some of the netfear devices, and it's messy...

Linksys and SmartWiFi does something similar, but not quite the same - they had a link to opt out...