NETGEAR up to no good?

I've replaced my DLINK router with this product of Netgear's, wpn824. I noticed it isnt better the slightest also at some point its even behind my old one.

However the most annoying issue with this router is, I cannot find any option to disable logging. Is it just me or does Netgear really provide no option for this what so ever?

Reply to
rabblerouser
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rabblerouser hath wroth:

You might try operating it horizontally instead of vertically as Netgear idiotically has it pictured in their literature. The steered antenna array doesn't work mounted vertically. How it works:

I don't consider beam steering to be "true" MIMO.

Review and testing of the WPN824:

Not so wonderful. I also had problems with this unit that went away with a firmware update. What manner of performance (range/speed) were you expecting? Through how many walls?

Why would you want to disable logging? The logs are a FIFO and are vaporized when the buffer fills. They stay local on the router unless you redirect or email them somewhere. Are you afraid that someone might login to the router and find out where you've been surfing? If so, set a router password or just power cycle the router after your illegal P2P filesharing session.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks for the helpful reply, Jeff.

The reason why I want to disable logging is that I'm doing sensitive work at the moment, and the last thing I want right now is someone tracking down the websites I'm visiting intentionally or unintentionally. As the router is in use by 5-6 other people I cannot really deny access to it, tho noone would mind if I disabled the logging feature.

Reply to
rabblerouser

rabblerouser hath wroth:

Note: I hate the word "access" because it's so vague and ambiguous.

Your 5-6 users can "access" or use the router all they want to get to the internet or wherever. However, unless they have the router admin password, they cannot "access" the web based configuration pages and the log files within the router. Of course, that assumes that you haven't granted "access" to these users to the router configs. However, if these users can "access" the router configuration pages, then they certainly can "access" the log files.

As I recall, the various Netgear routers have a "clear logs" button. You could write a script in your favorite scripting language, to regularly login to the router, go to the log page, hit the "clear logs" button, logout, and exit. This may cause some contention problems with other users that may simultaneously "access" the router configs. Only one web connection at a time. Otherwise, just cycle the power erratically to flush the logs.

You can also poison the log file by filling it with useless entries. Hitting a few thousand random web pages will surely fush the FIFO buffer and drive any snoopers nuts.

Also, I vaguely recall that some manufacturers have an oddity in the logging. I don't know if Netgear qualifies. If you setup a syslog server on the log page, the local logging window shows blank. It becomes an either/or situation. Either local or remote logging, not both. If you point to a non-existent syslog server, nothing detrimental happens. You can also point it to your own IP address. However, if your users have "access" to the router config, they can defeat this trick.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yeah right. What'd ya wanna bet it's p*rn, cheating on a spouse or he's looking for another job while at the current one?

If the others don't have admin access to the router there's not much to be worried about. And if it's work-related then you ought to have management support for keeping it away from other's prying eyes. Otherwise, go wank on your own time.

You do something like setup a VPN at home and tunnel back to it from work. That'd route all your internet traffic back home, through the VPN, and not through the local network. There would be a bit of a performance penalty due to the effort to tunnel back home, out to the net and then back again. But there's always a balance to be struck....

There are anonymizing proxies too. But they're less than effective than a VPN to 'hide' the traffic.

-Bill Kearney

Reply to
Bill Kearney

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