6 ms·

Anonabox has been suspended by Kickstarter

44 points by nathancahill 12y ago

andymoe 12y ago
This is too bad. I really wanted this to be a product. Wish they had been more upfront about the whole thing. Using an off the shelf board actually gives them a much better chance of making it happen. Hardware is really really hard to ship :-)
- miah_ 12y ago
  There are already other open source firmware implementations that can be put on inexpensive off the shelf hardware to do the same thing: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/a-portable-router-that-conceals-your-internet-traffic/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/a-port...
  - andymoe 12y ago
    That's great! Now where can I send my $50 bucks to have someone mail me one? I've got my own hardware startup to run. Maybe we will put a drone on the Tor network...
nroach 12y ago
Why?
- ExpiredLink 12y ago
  un-American activities
- stevekemp 12y ago
  See the previous discussion, here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8469438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8469438
mcphage 12y ago
Is there any info on why or what happened?
- Mithaldu 12y ago
  They claim on the kickstarter page to have built the router themselves, with 3 previous generations. In fact however the hardware they sell for 51$ is available for 20$ by chinese producers: http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html
  - androidb 12y ago
    Their mistake was not to mention that the hardware isn't built entirely by them (mainboard is bought from China). However, I don't think it's fair (the backslash). They bundle the hardware with a software, they will handle the support, future updates so it's not like they are simply reselling a Chinese item. If this sounds outrageous to you then you should be outraged by 99% of the electronics items sold (because you can always buy them cheaper in China). I'm not a supporter of this anonbox but I don't get all the outrage.
    - Mithaldu 12y ago
      The problem is that they lied. Under "Four Years, Four Generations" they don't outright say, but make it strongly seem like they created the board itself, and then they even do claim they designed the case. I hope i don't need to explain why this is a death sentence for the project.
      - vmind 12y ago
        The second link by uulbiy (https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...) shows they were much more deceptive (in direct questions) than just being vague on their kickstarter page.
- stevekemp 12y ago
frewsxcv 12y ago
Why was this popular in the first place? Why not just run TorBrowser?
- srslack 12y ago
  The aim of the project was to make a transparent Tor proxy simple to use, reducing the chance for mistakes to happen. The Tor Browser does not route all of your traffic through Tor, only web traffic. There are other options though, namely you've been able to configure OpenWRT to do this for years and of course https://github.com/grugq/portal https://github.com/grugq/portal. This project would just make it much simpler and easy to use, but they haven't inspired much confidence in the security aspect.
uulbiy 12y ago
Here are some interesting threads from reddit: -A user found an identical device on a chinese website: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_router_raises_300000_on_kickstarter_in_48/cl9irll https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_rout... -Updated thread with a lot of info/links: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to... -The infamous AMA from the "developer": https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_august_germar_a_developer_for_the_anonabox https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_augu... Edit: formatting
- downandout 12y ago
  It seems that they're buying parts from a manufacturer and putting them together with a custom configuration of OpenWRT. I went through the listing and nowhere does it say "all components completely designed and manufactured by us". The OpenWRT logo is actually on their page, so they're not hiding what they use. Open up an iPhone (which is built by third parties - not by Apple), and you'll see components from lots of other manufacturers too. The people complaining seem to not know that literally no one - not even Linksys or Apple - builds routers or any other consumer electronic product entirely from scratch. This product is neither great nor original, but the claims that they somehow lied about what they were doing just ring hollow to me.
  - 51Cards 12y ago
    From the kick-starter page: Our first prototypes were pretty clunky, and cost between $200-$400 just for the parts, but they worked well and proved the concept. We knew that the device had to be small enough to easily conceal, built with quality components, and rock solid. But we also wanted to make it inexpensive. We wanted to make it available to as many people as possible. By our fourth round of prototypes we had created a model with 64mb memory and a 580mhz CPU. This not only runs the software well, it flies! At last happy with the board, we designed a simple, minimalist case in plain white to house it. The end result is our current model. We decided to name it the anonabox.
eksith 12y ago
The same model is listed on AliExpress http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-Smallest-Portable-Mini-100M-IEEE-802-11-b-g-n-AP-Repeater-Client-Bridge-Wifi/1938319918.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-Smallest-Portable-Mini-... Unless that's a massive coincidence, they're buying off-the-shelf and modifying it. But there are other projects that use off-the-shelf components with custom software. E.G. Portal https://github.com/grugq/portal https://github.com/grugq/portal Which can run on one these http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-LINK-TL-WR703N-150M-Wireless-3G-Router-WR703N/623307472.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-LINK-TL-WR70...
jmatt0x 12y ago
For $50 I can do the Onion Pi: https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview
ChuckMcM 12y ago
This has been an interesting event. At one point coming up with an idea, contracting out with 'far east' manufacturers to build the hardware, and modifying open source software to put inside of it was something of a well known business plan. This project seems to have screwed up royally in the marketing aspect of things, but it certainly wouldn't be the first company to buy something in Asia for $X and sell it in the US and elsewhere for $3X. It does seem to have really validated the concept (or at least a million dollars worth). It would have been even more interesting if this had gotten these guys off the ground and then they had used their installed base to create a better (and more bespoke) product. But the reddit hate has been pretty amazing.

44 points by nathancahill 12y ago

This is too bad. I really wanted this to be a product. Wish they had been more upfront about the whole thing. Using an off the shelf board actually gives them a much better chance of making it happen. Hardware is really really hard to ship :-)

miah_ 12y ago
There are already other open source firmware implementations that can be put on inexpensive off the shelf hardware to do the same thing: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/a-portable-router-that-conceals-your-internet-traffic/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/a-port...
- andymoe 12y ago
  That's great! Now where can I send my $50 bucks to have someone mail me one? I've got my own hardware startup to run. Maybe we will put a drone on the Tor network...

nroach 12y ago

Why?

ExpiredLink 12y ago
un-American activities
stevekemp 12y ago
See the previous discussion, here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8469438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8469438

mcphage 12y ago

Is there any info on why or what happened?

Mithaldu 12y ago
They claim on the kickstarter page to have built the router themselves, with 3 previous generations. In fact however the hardware they sell for 51$ is available for 20$ by chinese producers: http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html
- androidb 12y ago
  Their mistake was not to mention that the hardware isn't built entirely by them (mainboard is bought from China). However, I don't think it's fair (the backslash). They bundle the hardware with a software, they will handle the support, future updates so it's not like they are simply reselling a Chinese item. If this sounds outrageous to you then you should be outraged by 99% of the electronics items sold (because you can always buy them cheaper in China). I'm not a supporter of this anonbox but I don't get all the outrage.
  - Mithaldu 12y ago
    The problem is that they lied. Under "Four Years, Four Generations" they don't outright say, but make it strongly seem like they created the board itself, and then they even do claim they designed the case. I hope i don't need to explain why this is a death sentence for the project.
    - vmind 12y ago
      The second link by uulbiy (https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...) shows they were much more deceptive (in direct questions) than just being vague on their kickstarter page.
stevekemp 12y ago

frewsxcv 12y ago

Why was this popular in the first place? Why not just run TorBrowser?

srslack 12y ago
The aim of the project was to make a transparent Tor proxy simple to use, reducing the chance for mistakes to happen. The Tor Browser does not route all of your traffic through Tor, only web traffic. There are other options though, namely you've been able to configure OpenWRT to do this for years and of course https://github.com/grugq/portal https://github.com/grugq/portal. This project would just make it much simpler and easy to use, but they haven't inspired much confidence in the security aspect.

uulbiy 12y ago

Here are some interesting threads from reddit: -A user found an identical device on a chinese website: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_router_raises_300000_on_kickstarter_in_48/cl9irll https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_rout... -Updated thread with a lot of info/links: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to... -The infamous AMA from the "developer": https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_august_germar_a_developer_for_the_anonabox https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_augu... Edit: formatting

downandout 12y ago
It seems that they're buying parts from a manufacturer and putting them together with a custom configuration of OpenWRT. I went through the listing and nowhere does it say "all components completely designed and manufactured by us". The OpenWRT logo is actually on their page, so they're not hiding what they use. Open up an iPhone (which is built by third parties - not by Apple), and you'll see components from lots of other manufacturers too. The people complaining seem to not know that literally no one - not even Linksys or Apple - builds routers or any other consumer electronic product entirely from scratch. This product is neither great nor original, but the claims that they somehow lied about what they were doing just ring hollow to me.
- 51Cards 12y ago
  From the kick-starter page: Our first prototypes were pretty clunky, and cost between $200-$400 just for the parts, but they worked well and proved the concept. We knew that the device had to be small enough to easily conceal, built with quality components, and rock solid. But we also wanted to make it inexpensive. We wanted to make it available to as many people as possible. By our fourth round of prototypes we had created a model with 64mb memory and a 580mhz CPU. This not only runs the software well, it flies! At last happy with the board, we designed a simple, minimalist case in plain white to house it. The end result is our current model. We decided to name it the anonabox.

eksith 12y ago

The same model is listed on AliExpress http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-Smallest-Portable-Mini-100M-IEEE-802-11-b-g-n-AP-Repeater-Client-Bridge-Wifi/1938319918.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-Smallest-Portable-Mini-... Unless that's a massive coincidence, they're buying off-the-shelf and modifying it. But there are other projects that use off-the-shelf components with custom software. E.G. Portal https://github.com/grugq/portal https://github.com/grugq/portal Which can run on one these http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-LINK-TL-WR703N-150M-Wireless-3G-Router-WR703N/623307472.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-LINK-TL-WR70...

jmatt0x 12y ago

For $50 I can do the Onion Pi: https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview

ChuckMcM 12y ago

This has been an interesting event. At one point coming up with an idea, contracting out with 'far east' manufacturers to build the hardware, and modifying open source software to put inside of it was something of a well known business plan. This project seems to have screwed up royally in the marketing aspect of things, but it certainly wouldn't be the first company to buy something in Asia for $X and sell it in the US and elsewhere for $3X. It does seem to have really validated the concept (or at least a million dollars worth). It would have been even more interesting if this had gotten these guys off the ground and then they had used their installed base to create a better (and more bespoke) product. But the reddit hate has been pretty amazing.