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For myself, I switched everything over to Google WiFi's, precisely because they auto-update, and having worked previously on a security-focused team at Google,

by floil 8y ago

For myself, I switched everything over to Google WiFi's, precisely because they auto-update, and having worked previously on a security-focused team at Google, I trust them to have a competent security team and actually stay on top of the patches. I don't miss fussing with manually updating router firmware. Life is too short. On the other hand, my Nest thermostats were bricked after a software update this week, so maybe today I'm starting to see a crack in my "auto update is best" dogma...

tatoalo 8y ago
Same reason I've also switched to G-WiFi, lately I've been having issues with iOS devices disconnecting randomly and after a couple of seconds the connection would have been established again. I've tried playing around with DHCP but nothing changed, maybe my it's my ISP's router which is a pita to work with...(vodafone).
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> On the other hand, my Nest thermostats were bricked after a software update this week, so maybe today I'm starting to see a crack in my "auto update is best" dogma... It works best when the vendor can be trusted to only push security updates and occasional quality of life improvements. In general, automatic updates tend to be a vector for bloat, user-hostile features (e.g. spyware), and user-hostile business practices (e.g. remote bricking).
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  Which vendors fit this criteria for you? I am not aware of any, except—somewhat ironically—for some open source projects.
  - walterbell 8y ago
    Microtik has a “bugfix” security update channel that can be selected in their routers mgmt interface. They also provide a “current/stable” channel which delivers new features.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > Which vendors fit this criteria for you? None. Hence, personally, I dislike auto updates.
nitrogen 8y ago
...maybe today I'm starting to see a crack in my "auto update is best" dogma... For me that crack came when an automatic update to Android removed Exchange server support from my tablet (around 2015). I no longer had a good workflow for keeping up with work communication, which ultimately, as a sometimes-remote dev at the time, cost me a lot of productivity and reputation at that job. Now, anything that involves my productivity or quality of life (e g. thermostat) is on a manual update process as much as possible.
stdplaceholder 8y ago
I just checked my OnHub. It is the original, now over 3 years old. It got five updates this year, none of which I noticed. It's too bad that it's nearly guaranteed that they will kill this product line at some point in the future.

by floil 8y ago

tatoalo 8y ago

Same reason I've also switched to G-WiFi, lately I've been having issues with iOS devices disconnecting randomly and after a couple of seconds the connection would have been established again. I've tried playing around with DHCP but nothing changed, maybe my it's my ISP's router which is a pita to work with...(vodafone).

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> On the other hand, my Nest thermostats were bricked after a software update this week, so maybe today I'm starting to see a crack in my "auto update is best" dogma... It works best when the vendor can be trusted to only push security updates and occasional quality of life improvements. In general, automatic updates tend to be a vector for bloat, user-hostile features (e.g. spyware), and user-hostile business practices (e.g. remote bricking).

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
Which vendors fit this criteria for you? I am not aware of any, except—somewhat ironically—for some open source projects.
- walterbell 8y ago
  Microtik has a “bugfix” security update channel that can be selected in their routers mgmt interface. They also provide a “current/stable” channel which delivers new features.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > Which vendors fit this criteria for you? None. Hence, personally, I dislike auto updates.

nitrogen 8y ago

...maybe today I'm starting to see a crack in my "auto update is best" dogma... For me that crack came when an automatic update to Android removed Exchange server support from my tablet (around 2015). I no longer had a good workflow for keeping up with work communication, which ultimately, as a sometimes-remote dev at the time, cost me a lot of productivity and reputation at that job. Now, anything that involves my productivity or quality of life (e g. thermostat) is on a manual update process as much as possible.

stdplaceholder 8y ago

I just checked my OnHub. It is the original, now over 3 years old. It got five updates this year, none of which I noticed. It's too bad that it's nearly guaranteed that they will kill this product line at some point in the future.