TP-Link Said to be Sharing all Router Traffic with Third Party

windwhirl · Mar 12, 2022

lexluthermiester said:
Avira is a reasonably trustworthy company. They could have been sharing with Symantec or some other pathetically awful company.

Voluman said:
Well, Avira has bought by AVG if i remember correctly (or vicaversa). AVG had in the TOS, that they share data with 3rd party, i think Avira had it too. So it's not a big surprise for me if that is true in some way.

Avira was bought by NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec's consumer business) last year. For the record, Symantec's enterprise business was sold to Broadcom a while before that. And it seems Broadcom later sold part of that to Accenture (whoever they may be).

AVG was bought by Avast back in 2016.

And now, Avast and Norton are set to merge into one company later this year, provided all the paperwork goes well.

So yeah, if you didn't like any of those companies, all the others mentioned are probably tainted too in your view.

Edit: Ah, if you liked CCleaner, that's part of Piriform, which is part of Avast. So I guess that's something else to look at.

lexluthermiester · Mar 12, 2022

Voluman said:
Well, Avira has bought by AVG if i remember correctly (or vicaversa).

That is absolutely not correct. You're thinking of the NortonLifeLock buyout. Not that it's any better, but Avira is still operating as an independent subsidiary so their product lineup is still a quality offering.

windwhirl said:
Avira was bought by NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec's consumer business) last year.

Ninja'd!

Tartaros · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
I put OpenWRT on both of my TP-Link devices and both of them are working better with OpenWRT than they did with the TP-Link firmware.

OpenWRT and reputable variants are the way to go, even if it's just for having an updated router firmware. And the more companies are interested in our data, the more it becomes a necessity.

mechtech · Mar 13, 2022

hmmm don't have a TP-link router

If I did they'd see me on smallnetbuilder most of the time waiting for new merlin firmware lol

TheLostSwede said:
In fairness to TP-Link, their hardware isn't all that different from their competitors.
However, I would never, as I've said before here, use one of their devices with the default software on it, as a router facing the internet.
I put OpenWRT on both of my TP-Link devices and both of them are working better with OpenWRT than they did with the TP-Link firmware.

Ya it's too bad router companies don't put a big sticker on the box advertising it's compatible with tomato/open wrt/etc. For the average user even a regular firmware update is probably over their head, let alone custom firmware.

Jism · Mar 13, 2022

It's no different then using Google's DNS and have every website you visit pretty much indexed and what more.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

mechtech said:
hmmm don't have a TP-link router

If I did they'd see me on smallnetbuilder most of the time waiting for new merlin firmware lol

Ya it's too bad router companies don't put a big sticker on the box advertising it's compatible with tomato/open wrt/etc. For the average user even a regular firmware update is probably over their head, let alone custom firmware.

Merlin only makes firmwares for Asus routers.

TP-Link only seems to offer 2-3 firmware updates for their products, then they do a new hardware revisions and drop the old revision like a hot potato. I really loathe how they operate.

micropage7 · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
In fairness to TP-Link, their hardware isn't all that different from their competitors.
However, I would never, as I've said before here, use one of their devices with the default software on it, as a router facing the internet.
I put OpenWRT on both of my TP-Link devices and both of them are working better with OpenWRT than they did with the TP-Link firmware.

yeah, but too bad for low end and for old hardware is kinda hard to find

Tarte · Mar 13, 2022

Never had a TP-Link Router. Why? Don't know.
Using only FritzBox(AVM).

dozenfury · Mar 13, 2022

As a side-note it's a good reminder to periodically check your network traffic with third-party tools. It will sometimes reveal some surprises. I've seen other anti-virus ping addresses in Russia or China, and have had cheap IoT appliances ping IP addresses in China for no good reason and ended up replacing. Data gathering is a revenue stream for many companies, and the less reputable they are the more likely it is that they'll resort to doing something shady.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

Tarte said:
Never had a TP-Link Router. Why? Don't know.
Using only FritzBox(AVM).

You live in the German speaking part of the world? As their products aren't common outside of it. A few models are sold EU wide though.

dozenfury said:
As a side-note it's a good reminder to periodically check your network traffic with third-party tools. It will sometimes reveal some surprises. I've seen other anti-virus ping addresses in Russia or China, and have had cheap IoT appliances ping IP addresses in China for no good reason and ended up replacing. Data gathering is a revenue stream for many companies, and the less reputable they are the more likely it is that they'll resort to doing something shady.

Cheap IoT devices almost always go via some server in the PRC, so no surprise there.

lexluthermiester · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
You live in the German speaking part of the world? As their products aren't common outside of it. A few models are sold EU wide though.

TP-Link is fairly popular in the States. I've had two of their USB WIFI adapters.

ixi · Mar 13, 2022

Assimilator said:
No, they don't. If they did, people would've noticed it and called them out for it.

Look how long it took fir them to notice tp-link

P4-630 · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
As their products aren't common outside of it.

We can buy German Fritz hardware here in NL too.
Decent products, my parents use a Fritz repeater.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

lexluthermiester said:
TP-Link is fairly popular in the States. I've had two of their USB WIFI adapters.

I was referring to FritzBox!

P4-630 said:
We can buy German Fritz hardware here in NL too.
Decent products, my parents use a Fritz repeater.

Well, Dutch is almost German...

I didn't say they weren't sold anywhere else, but the DACH region is where they seem to do their core business.

TheDeeGee · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
In fairness to TP-Link, their hardware isn't all that different from their competitors.
However, I would never, as I've said before here, use one of their devices with the default software on it, as a router facing the internet.
I put OpenWRT on both of my TP-Link devices and both of them are working better with OpenWRT than they did with the TP-Link firmware.

My Nighthawk R7000 has Xwrt-Vortex on it, works way better than the factory firmware as well.

Ferrum Master · Mar 13, 2022

D-Link uses Russian Yandex and sky.dns crap also... witch currently rises eyebrows pretty high.

Here we see how much open source matters and no one stresses much as there is a fine alternative like OpenWRT, that is fully code transparent.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

TheDeeGee said:
My Nighthawk R7000 has Xwrt-Vortex on it, works way better than the factory firmware as well.

No idea what that is, but I run Voxel's firmware on my R7800.

mechtech · Mar 13, 2022

TheLostSwede said:
Merlin only makes firmwares for Asus routers.

TP-Link only seems to offer 2-3 firmware updates for their products, then they do a new hardware revisions and drop the old revision like a hot potato. I really loathe how they operate.

Yes, that's what I have. I guess I should have said TP-link as a side to my main or vs versa. But ya only asus here...........so far..........

Not sure what the next upgrade is, maybe an AX86U? Been looking at the synology and ubiquiti, but not sure how they would be for residential use. I guess I like the asus for the firmware choices.

TheDeeGee said:
My Nighthawk R7000 has Xwrt-Vortex on it, works way better than the factory firmware as well.

Home | Xwrt-Vortex

xvtx.ru

hmmmm

is it fully open source??

TheLostSwede said:
No idea what that is, but I run Voxel's firmware on my R7800.

How do you like it? Is it simple? Does if have filtering for the children in the house? My co-worker has a R7800, but says the netgear FW is hit and miss, but he isn't a tech guy though.

DrCR · Mar 13, 2022

mechtech said:
Yes, that's what I have. I guess I should have said TP-link as a side to my main or vs versa. But ya only asus here...........so far..........

Not sure what the next upgrade is, maybe an AX86U? Been looking at the synology and ubiquiti, but not sure how they would be for residential use. I guess I like the asus for the firmware choices.

Home | Xwrt-Vortex

xvtx.ru

hmmmm

is it fully open source??

How do you like it? Is it simple? Does if have filtering for the children in the house? My co-worker has a R7800, but says the netgear FW is hit and miss, but he isn't a tech guy though.

I like to use *wrt for router with any WiFi disabled, and use a UniFi AP. Works like a champ.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

mechtech said:
Yes, that's what I have. I guess I should have said TP-link as a side to my main or vs versa. But ya only asus here...........so far..........

Not sure what the next upgrade is, maybe an AX86U? Been looking at the synology and ubiquiti, but not sure how they would be for residential use. I guess I like the asus for the firmware choices.

This https://rog.asus.com/networking/rog-rapture-gt-ax6000-model/
It should be reasonably future proof, as long as you don't care about the 6 GHz band.
Yes, it's big, clunky and fugly, but it's the first consumer router with two 2.5 Gbps ports.

mechtech said:
How do you like it? Is it simple? Does if have filtering for the children in the house? My co-worker has a R7800, but says the netgear FW is hit and miss, but he isn't a tech guy though.

It's the most stable router I've ever owned. Never had to reboot it because the router had a hissy fit. It obviously gets rebooted when I've installed software updates, but it was working non-stop for at least seven months in 2020, when I was stuck in Sweden, plus the start of the year. The WiFi signal is still really fast and reliable after 5+ years of usage.

Not overly fond of the Netgear UI/UX, but it has everything there that's needed, if if it's not always as advanced as it could be for certain things and annoying complex for some other bits.
If I click on the Parental Control option, I'm taken here https://www.netgear.com/home/services/lpc/
I have never used it.

He should install the Voxel firmware, as he's keeping the firmware up to date and has even added a few things. There's also an add-on available for it which should apparently be released as a final release sometime this year. I haven't tried it, but it's meant to add a lot of features. I don't feel like I really need a bunch of other stuff for it.

I wish Asus made some more Qualcomm based hardware, but every time they do, it feels like their engineers aren't capable of bringing them to the same functional levels as their Broadcom based hardware.

evelynharthbrooke · Mar 13, 2022

I purchased one TP-Link router, back in 2015/2016. Never again. Yeah, their routers have decent support for other firmwares like OpenWrt, but their hardware is kind of inferior to that of routers manufactured by companies like Netgear and ASUS. I have an ASUS RT-AX86U now and its performing really well flashed with AsusWrt-Merlin. Especially with this coming to light now where TP-Link finds it necessary to completely ignore a settings toggle regarding data sharing.

windwhirl · Mar 13, 2022

mechtech said:
ubiquiti, but not sure how they would be for residential use.

A while ago someone at ArsTechnica looked at them for a middle ground kind of use between residential and enterprise.

What I’ve learned from nearly three years of enterprise Wi-Fi at home

The ups and downs of software-defined networking—and having too many access points.

arstechnica.com

Just in case you're interested. But it's from 2018, on gear the author started using back in 2015, so it's pretty old.

newtekie1 · Mar 13, 2022

I would not trust any TP-Link hardware.

TheLostSwede · Mar 13, 2022

evelynmarie said:
Yeah, their routers have decent support for other firmwares like OpenWrt, but their hardware is kind of inferior to that of routers manufactured by companies like Netgear and ASUS.

Do you have proof of this, or is this just your layman opinion?

There's actually not much wrong with the hardware, but when you cut corners on the software side, or have software developers that don't really know what they're doing, you end up with an inferior product. Both my TP-Link products, one actual range extender and one cheapo router, that have only ever been used as WiFi access points or range extenders, are both working better with OpenWRT than they did with their default firmwares. It suggests the hardware is fine, but the issue is software.

That said, I have no interest in giving them any more of my money and I'm not trying to defend them as a business, but the actual hardware is pretty much on par with the competition most of the time.

P4-630 · Mar 13, 2022

I have had a TPLINK powerline set in the past, which didn't work well in my home at that time, sold them.
Also had a TPLINK usb wifi stick but haven't used it much, also sold.
Won't buy anything from this brand anymore.

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TP-Link Said to be Sharing all Router Traffic with Third Party

windwhirl

lexluthermiester

Tartaros

mechtech

Jism

TheLostSwede

News Editor

micropage7

Tarte

dozenfury

TheLostSwede

News Editor

lexluthermiester

ixi

P4-630

TheLostSwede

News Editor

TheDeeGee

Ferrum Master

TheLostSwede

News Editor

mechtech

Home | Xwrt-Vortex

DrCR

Home | Xwrt-Vortex

TheLostSwede

News Editor

evelynharthbrooke

windwhirl

What I’ve learned from nearly three years of enterprise Wi-Fi at home

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

TheLostSwede

News Editor

P4-630

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