2 ms·

This is happening with routers, too. Just recently had someone give me a new Netgear Nighthawk for free, and I was stoked until it wanted me to download an app

This is happening with routers, too. Just recently had someone give me a new Netgear Nighthawk for free, and I was stoked until it wanted me to download an app and create an account to manage my network. Straight to the garbage.

perrylaj 3y ago
Decent consumer hardware, in the future I'd suggest trying out something like OpenWRT rather than binning it. https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000 https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000
- ramesh31 3y ago
  Yeah I didn't realize they could be flashed with OpenWRT. Might give that shot.
yumraj 3y ago
Effing Xfinity cable modem wants an app for a couple of things including service activation and such, via bluetooth access. I don't think there's a way around that. Once that is done you can use the browser for a few things, but for WiFi password and all I think app is still needed. Couldn't find a way to do it other way. Worst thing is that this stupid Xfinity app eats phone battery like crazy. So I had to disable background activity and bluetooth permissions once I was done with the activation and initial setup.
- sliken 3y ago
  The way around that is to use your own cable modem. It's also way cheaper to buy than pay the monthly rental fee.
  - bell-cot 3y ago
    "Oh, you want fixed IP #'s? Sorry, we only support that via our $240-per-year-forever rented cablemodems." - my most recent Comcast/Xfinity experience
  - kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
    Plus you don't have bandwidth lost to the Xfinity wifi.
dangus 3y ago
Were you using the phone app-based installation, or visiting the local network address from a desktop computer? Most products like this have some kind of "harder way" to set up without an account, while the smartphone way uses an account. For a router usually means that if you want the old-fashioned manual way you need to visit the router's gateway IP and set it up from there. Sometimes "the smartphone way" even has a way around having to make an account, it's just that it's hard to find or discouraged. E.g., I set up my HP printer without an account or any ink subscriptions (and I even think it's a great printer, shocking, I know). (I had a Nighthawk device relatively recently and it had no need for an account, but I don't actually know if this has changed recently)
tapper 3y ago
Well that was a dumb thing to do! You could of flashed it with OpenWrt and had a dam good router.

perrylaj 3y ago

Decent consumer hardware, in the future I'd suggest trying out something like OpenWRT rather than binning it. https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000 https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7000

ramesh31 3y ago
Yeah I didn't realize they could be flashed with OpenWRT. Might give that shot.

yumraj 3y ago

Effing Xfinity cable modem wants an app for a couple of things including service activation and such, via bluetooth access. I don't think there's a way around that. Once that is done you can use the browser for a few things, but for WiFi password and all I think app is still needed. Couldn't find a way to do it other way. Worst thing is that this stupid Xfinity app eats phone battery like crazy. So I had to disable background activity and bluetooth permissions once I was done with the activation and initial setup.

sliken 3y ago
The way around that is to use your own cable modem. It's also way cheaper to buy than pay the monthly rental fee.
- bell-cot 3y ago
  "Oh, you want fixed IP #'s? Sorry, we only support that via our $240-per-year-forever rented cablemodems." - my most recent Comcast/Xfinity experience
- kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
  Plus you don't have bandwidth lost to the Xfinity wifi.

dangus 3y ago

Were you using the phone app-based installation, or visiting the local network address from a desktop computer? Most products like this have some kind of "harder way" to set up without an account, while the smartphone way uses an account. For a router usually means that if you want the old-fashioned manual way you need to visit the router's gateway IP and set it up from there. Sometimes "the smartphone way" even has a way around having to make an account, it's just that it's hard to find or discouraged. E.g., I set up my HP printer without an account or any ink subscriptions (and I even think it's a great printer, shocking, I know). (I had a Nighthawk device relatively recently and it had no need for an account, but I don't actually know if this has changed recently)

tapper 3y ago

Well that was a dumb thing to do! You could of flashed it with OpenWrt and had a dam good router.