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

[mechtech]

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.

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.

That's new, haven't even heard of that one, but don't really follow routers on a daily basis.

ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 Wireless Router - Newegg.com

Buy ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 Dual-Band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) Gaming Router, Dual 2.5G ports, enhanced hardware, WAN aggregation, VPN Fusion, Triple-Level Game Acceleration, free network security and AiMesh support with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

ouch $400 USD so about $510 CAD w/o 13% tax. Could add it to the list with the AX86u and just wait for sales and reviews. Old AC68U still performing good for now, but usually better to replace before it dies and end up with a bunch of disgruntled kids and wife with no wifi lol

 

[TheLostSwede]

That's new, haven't even heard of that one, but don't really follow routers on a daily basis.

ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 Wireless Router - Newegg.com

Buy ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 Dual-Band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) Gaming Router, Dual 2.5G ports, enhanced hardware, WAN aggregation, VPN Fusion, Triple-Level Game Acceleration, free network security and AiMesh support with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

ouch $400 USD so about $510 CAD w/o 13% tax. Could add it to the list with the AX86u and just wait for sales and reviews. Old AC68U still performing good for now, but usually better to replace before it dies and end up with a bunch of disgruntled kids and wife with no wifi lol

I guess it comes down to what you need, but it's pretty much the only retail router for faster than 1Gbps connections, which obviously most people don't have.
The AX86U should be more than plenty otherwise.

 

[Tom Sunday]

It seems that everybody wants to steal my information. My ISP, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter and now my ‘Router’ broadcasting what sites I visit and or frequent. Router companies in effect are now getting paid twice. Once from the people buying their product and then from their ‘partners’ who readily upload and install their spyware into the router hardware. I doubt very much if TP-LINK even cares what the spyware is actually doing to and with their customer’s information as long as monthly partner check arrives at the TP-LINK offices.

I am now in fact waiting for the other shoe to drop whereby Intel, AMD, Corsair, Dell, HP and our bevy of other fine friends of proprietary hardware are jumping on the spyware bandwagon as well. Incorporating their own hardware spying-dosages throughout their entire product line. In effect thus inviting extra income opportunities and unleashing their greed even more so on the unsuspecting public? Perhaps soon it will come to a point where I will just roll over and play dead because there is nothing I can do about it! Thoughts?

 

[Makaveli]

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

Its basically a port of merlin's firmware to run on the r7000.

I have a retired R7000 that its on. Currently using an Asus AX88U with merlin on it.

 

[Just Some Noise]

That's why i switched all Networking Gear and Computers to OSS.
It really lets me appreciate the work so many people put into GNU/Linux, FreeBSD etc. and projects using it.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

Its basically a port of merlin's firmware to run on the r7000.

I have a retired R7000 that its on. Currently using an Asus AX88U with merlin on it.

You're confusing XVortex with Voxel, though both are based in Russia
Voxel is recompiling Netgear firmware while adding some bells and whistles and also updating all the add on packages that sometimes are sorely out of date in netgears own firmware releases.
XVortex is porting Merlin to R7000 and a few other devices.

 

[Mussels]

Imagine how bad this would be for low speed users, or users with data caps - how many GB's of data is being sent upstream?

 

[sidemouse]

Yeah, and I'm the crazy one buying expensive gear from reputable vendors...

By reputable do you mean places like Best Buy, because that's where I bought my TP-Link product from!

 

[Voluman]

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

Indeed, i did not remember correctly, thanks for correction.
But still read the TOS if you wanna use it, you may surprise else.

 

[Makaveli]

You're confusing XVortex with Voxel, though both are based in Russia
Voxel is recompiling Netgear firmware while adding some bells and whistles and also updating all the add on packages that sometimes are sorely out of date in netgears own firmware releases.
XVortex is porting Merlin to R7000 and a few other devices.

No i'm well aware of Xvortex and Voxel.

And I know that the 7800 runs Voxel's firmware. You and I have have spoken many times on linksysinfo.org.

 

[windwhirl]

But still read the TOS if you wanna use it, you may surprise else.

Yeah. Even then, TOS can change without warning. So, really, no choice but to keep an eye out for these shenanigans.

 

[zlobby]

By reputable do you mean places like Best Buy, because that's where I bought my TP-Link product from!

I mean vendors like MikroTik, Teltonika, Ubiquiti, Cisco, Extreme Networks. What you mentioned are retailers.

Well, maybe Cisco and Extreme are a bit overkill for the average home user...

Inb4, please don't even mention pfSense here.

Yeah. Even then, TOS can change without warning. So, really, no choice but to keep an eye out for these shenanigans.

TOS = POS! These are so broad and vague that you might as well skip reading them alltogether. They are purposefully tailored in a way, such that manufacturers waive ANY and EVERY responsibility for damages and controversies that can or may occur when using the products.
That's the modern way for 'Fùck you, if you want to use our products, you have to agree to be royally screwed. Oh, you want to use someone else's products? Shame, they are doing exactly the same.'

 

[Octavean]

“Insert E.T. meme here”

TP-Phone-Home,….

 

[TheLostSwede]

“Insert E.T. meme here”

TP-Phone-Home,….

Isn't this more apt?

 

[Prime2515102]

I just upgraded my router and almost bought a TP-Link. Amazon is really pushing them hard, now I know why.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Isn't this more apt?

I need TP!! TP for my bunghole!!

Amazon is really pushing them hard, now I know why.

No, not really. Amazon pushes whatever they have a lot of stock of. Just a coincidence.

 

[papito6166]

Hola chicos. Acabo de recibir un tp link ax53 wifi 6 y hoy recibo un repetidor re330 para ponerlos en malla. Ellos también tienen este problema..??. Yo digo devolverlos o no. gracias y perdon por el traductor de google. Hi guys. I just received a tp link ax53 wifi 6 and today I receive a re330 repeater to put them in mesh. They also have this problem..??. I say return them or not. thanks and sorry for the google translate

 

[windwhirl]

Hola chicos. Acabo de recibir un tp link ax53 wifi 6 y hoy recibo un repetidor re330 para ponerlos en malla. Ellos también tienen este problema..??. Yo digo devolverlos o no. gracias y perdon por el traductor de google

... Copiaste el texto equivocado del traductor

Anyway, it seems to me that all the AX-5x line has some sort of HomeShield/HomeCare feature, so the AX53 probably does too. EDIT: Confirmed, HomeShield is there too.

Regarding returns, I don't know. You'd have to find a router of a different brand/model, for starters. The repeater should be fine, though.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Since reading this I've paid some closer attention to the behavior on my Archer AX50 (with Trend Micro software) and even with the three security features under HomeCare disabled, there are still logs of "blocked" domains and the sort. Whether these domains were actually blocked or if that's just a log/resolution, it is still a problem. For example, this log that seems to originate from an embedded ad that was displayed on my mom's laptop and is logged here, despite the filter being off:

To make sure that logging was occurring despite the settings were off, after posting on this thread earlier I cleared the logs (I had about 30 entries or so in there at the time), making sure that everything was disabled. Come on now, I turned the security filters off because I don't want the router logging every domain that anyone within my network might have visited, and I _definitely_ don't want the antivirus services.

The router is currently running:

Firmware Version: 1.0.11 Build 20210730 rel.54485(5553) Hardware Version: Archer AX50 v1.0

... I gotta chuck this thing off a cliff when I have some time.

 

[Assimilator]

I just upgraded my router and almost bought a TP-Link. Amazon is really pushing them hard, now I know why.

It's called "price".

 

[zlobby]

Since reading this I've paid some closer attention to the behavior on my Archer AX50 (with Trend Micro software) and even with the three security features under HomeCare disabled, there are still logs of "blocked" domains and the sort. Whether these domains were actually blocked or if that's just a log/resolution, it is still a problem. For example, this log that seems to originate from an embedded ad that was displayed on my mom's laptop and is logged here, despite the filter being off:

View attachment 239851

To make sure that logging was occurring despite the settings were off, after posting on this thread earlier I cleared the logs (I had about 30 entries or so in there at the time), making sure that everything was disabled. Come on now, I turned the security filters off because I don't want the router logging every domain that anyone within my network might have visited, and I _definitely_ don't want the antivirus services.

The router is currently running:

Firmware Version: 1.0.11 Build 20210730 rel.54485(5553) Hardware Version: Archer AX50 v1.0

... I gotta chuck this thing off a cliff when I have some time.

Shotguns do wonders on electronics. Ask me how I know.

 

[papito6166]

Hello again. Continuing with the topic, how can I see if the same thing is happening on my router. Can I see it through the router page in logs or do I need some program to check it? Thanks again

 

[zlobby]

Hello again. Continuing with the topic, how can I see if the same thing is happening on my router. Can I see it through the router page in logs or do I need some program to check it? Thanks again

Even if it doesn't do it now, would you take the risk for this to be enabled without your knowledge in the future? Why do you trust a vendor who does this in a first place?

 

[Mussels]

Even if it doesn't do it now, would you take the risk for this to be enabled without your knowledge in the future? Why do you trust a vendor who does this in a first place?

Do you have one of the models listed in the article?

If yes, it's doing it.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

So upon this news, the fact I'm starting to hate the omada SDN and current love for opensource projects I looked into OpenWrt, sadly my router didn't seem to be supported.

Ones with slightly lower specifications were on the hardware list but no sign of mine, so I hit up the forum asked the developers section and within 24 hours someone had tweaked firmware for mine ...(how good a community is that).

Anyway I have no idea what I'm doing and there's a high chance I won't have a working GUI so I'll have to do everything via SSH but I'm gonna do it!! New firmware here I come.