4 ms·

All low end proprietary network gear is going managed by cloud. Ubiquiti on the soho side and now consumer. Open source is the only equipment you can trust to

All low end proprietary network gear is going managed by cloud. Ubiquiti on the soho side and now consumer. Open source is the only equipment you can trust to not adopt this model as it’s much more profitable than shipping a box once every five years.

pseudalopex 6y ago
It's optional with Ubiquiti.
- jlgaddis 6y ago
  ... but the telemetry isn't, IIRC.
  - devrand 6y ago
    Is it not? I disabled diagnostic and analytics reporting, though it does occasionally ask me to turn it back on. Is there additional telemetry that cannot be disabled?
    - dylz 6y ago
      When they pushed the firmware, iirc the telemetry was done without notice, opted in and enabled by default, and there was no way to actually opt out until _another firmware update after the uproar_
      - 0xy 6y ago
        Ubiquiti has never cared about security, if they did they wouldn't have been scammed for $40,000,000 via a literal scam email. If Ubiquiti staff has the non-existent procedures and corporate security for this to happen, they surely don't care about your privacy or security.
        mason55 6y ago
        So what is the alternative nowadays?
        craftoman 6y ago
        They didn't scammed, they washed some of the investors money. These kind of attacks are ridiculously hard to believe.
      - devrand 6y ago
        Got it! Thank you for that context. I'm pretty sporadic about updates so I more than likely missed the gap when it was enabled by default and not available to be disabled. Not cool to do that :(.
        dylz 6y ago
        I'd argue the continued "ask you to turn it on" just in the hopes that you might eventually do it to shut it up is also a terrible antipattern.
- kalleboo 6y ago
  I believe it's no longer optional on the new UDM and UDM Pro devices
4cao 6y ago
Netgear isn't (wasn't?) really low-end though. At least not priced as such. One would think they'd be making enough without having to resort to such tactics. You're right Ubiquiti did it though and I believe their devices are priced even higher. (Edit: note the post next to mine says you can opt out of this.) I agree replacing the stock firmware with an open-source aftermarket one like OpenWRT is the way to go but there's still the moral dilemma of supporting such practices with your wallet. I was also thinking if this could be an attempt to thwart the second-hand market for their devices? Is the binding to the online account permanent, or maybe it requires unbinding the previous account first?
- foxdev 6y ago
  You can get a $20-40 Netgear router at Walmart.
ziml77 6y ago
It's unfortunate that Ubiquiti is forcing telemetry on users. Having everything integrate into UniFi Controller is pretty neat. Like enough so that if I didn't already have an APU2 running pfSense, I'd very likely buy a UDM Pro despite it being immense overkill.
T3OU-736 6y ago
I would posit that MikroTik is so far not doing this insanity, and price-wise is not far off from NetGear.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Silhouette 6y ago
  Nor DrayTek, AFAIK. And those are the two brands that I consistently see recommended for SOHO network gear these days. They don't have the flashy UI of something like Ubiquiti, so you do have to know what you're doing to set them up, but they seem to make reliable hardware and solid firmware.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Why can't we have network equipment that's designed from the ground up to run open source router firmwares? When my ISP gives me new networking hardware, the first thing I do is look for ways to flash new firmware on it or put it into bridge mode.
- gabriel_shatana 6y ago
  There's librerouter actually, but Is more intended for mesh network scenarios. https://librerouter.org/ https://librerouter.org/

pseudalopex 6y ago

It's optional with Ubiquiti.

jlgaddis 6y ago
... but the telemetry isn't, IIRC.
- devrand 6y ago
  Is it not? I disabled diagnostic and analytics reporting, though it does occasionally ask me to turn it back on. Is there additional telemetry that cannot be disabled?
  - dylz 6y ago
    When they pushed the firmware, iirc the telemetry was done without notice, opted in and enabled by default, and there was no way to actually opt out until _another firmware update after the uproar_
    - 0xy 6y ago
      Ubiquiti has never cared about security, if they did they wouldn't have been scammed for $40,000,000 via a literal scam email. If Ubiquiti staff has the non-existent procedures and corporate security for this to happen, they surely don't care about your privacy or security.
      - mason55 6y ago
        So what is the alternative nowadays?
      - craftoman 6y ago
        They didn't scammed, they washed some of the investors money. These kind of attacks are ridiculously hard to believe.
    - devrand 6y ago
      Got it! Thank you for that context. I'm pretty sporadic about updates so I more than likely missed the gap when it was enabled by default and not available to be disabled. Not cool to do that :(.
      - dylz 6y ago
        I'd argue the continued "ask you to turn it on" just in the hopes that you might eventually do it to shut it up is also a terrible antipattern.
kalleboo 6y ago
I believe it's no longer optional on the new UDM and UDM Pro devices

4cao 6y ago

Netgear isn't (wasn't?) really low-end though. At least not priced as such. One would think they'd be making enough without having to resort to such tactics. You're right Ubiquiti did it though and I believe their devices are priced even higher. (Edit: note the post next to mine says you can opt out of this.) I agree replacing the stock firmware with an open-source aftermarket one like OpenWRT is the way to go but there's still the moral dilemma of supporting such practices with your wallet. I was also thinking if this could be an attempt to thwart the second-hand market for their devices? Is the binding to the online account permanent, or maybe it requires unbinding the previous account first?

foxdev 6y ago
You can get a $20-40 Netgear router at Walmart.

ziml77 6y ago

It's unfortunate that Ubiquiti is forcing telemetry on users. Having everything integrate into UniFi Controller is pretty neat. Like enough so that if I didn't already have an APU2 running pfSense, I'd very likely buy a UDM Pro despite it being immense overkill.

T3OU-736 6y ago

I would posit that MikroTik is so far not doing this insanity, and price-wise is not far off from NetGear.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Silhouette 6y ago
Nor DrayTek, AFAIK. And those are the two brands that I consistently see recommended for SOHO network gear these days. They don't have the flashy UI of something like Ubiquiti, so you do have to know what you're doing to set them up, but they seem to make reliable hardware and solid firmware.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

Why can't we have network equipment that's designed from the ground up to run open source router firmwares? When my ISP gives me new networking hardware, the first thing I do is look for ways to flash new firmware on it or put it into bridge mode.

gabriel_shatana 6y ago
There's librerouter actually, but Is more intended for mesh network scenarios. https://librerouter.org/ https://librerouter.org/