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Q: New router for Mum and Dad, remote management

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Morty_UA

Occasional Visitor
Dear all,

As many of us are, I'm the de facto IT support guy for my Mum and Dad, who are a bit older and not strong on technology. :)

I'm looking for a router to set up at their home. And I would want this router to have good remote management capabilities, so that I can log in without having to go to my parent's place.

Next, I care about stability. The router should be rock stable. I would like to have an option to schedule periodic reboots, just as an additional measure to enhance stability.

That's it, I have no other needs for this -- just remote management and rock steady stability.

I'm looking at Linksys, because they're managed via "Linksys Smart WiFi", a cloud management backend. But I'm not sure they are the best ... they have the remote management, but no reboot (and I don't know about their stability?).

What other brands & models should I be looking at? Thank you! :)
 
Linksys probably provides the most remote control, since their cloud portal provides access to the entire admin interface.

NETGEAR's Genie app provides only access to a subset of controls. Not sure it supports reboot.

I hear ASUS now has an app,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.aihome

You can take care of daily reboot by plugging the router into a lamp timer to power cycle the router.
 
I would shun the cloud solutions. If you can do remote configuring of their network, so can others, whether you want them to or not.

I would use an RT-AC56U or an RT-AC68U (depending on how big the area is to be covered) and setup an openvpn server instead on RMerlin's firmware. I can't see you needing anything else for mom and pop.
 
There is no reason to avoid hosted relays. They're as secure as a VPN you would set up and a lot less hassle because they automatically handle tracking your WAN IP address.

In either case, you need to use a strong password.
 
Linksys probably provides the most remote control, since their cloud portal provides access to the entire admin interface.

Linksys SmartWifi is ideal, and it's what I use to manage my parent's router back home - I realize some folks have issues with security and privacy - it's a https connection, and for those who don't what to manage it over the internet, it can be disabled.

Some models have OpenVPN built in, (the WRT line for example) which can also be used, but configuration for OpenVPN on the Linksys SmartWifi devices must be done local, not remote... (which is a very good thing)
 
I'm looking at Linksys, because they're managed via "Linksys Smart WiFi", a cloud management backend. But I'm not sure they are the best ... they have the remote management, but no reboot (and I don't know about their stability?).

You can remote reboot the Linksys SmartWifi routers from remote - it's under the "troubleshooting" table under diagnostics
 
I'm not worried about the connection I can make to the cloud based devices - that point is moot.

I am worried about the information that the manufacturer of that cloud based device can gather (or worse; one or more of their rogue employees or just run of the mill hackers that enjoy cracking the 'big' companies defenses).
 
No doubt, and it's a real and legitimate concern.. and one reason why I'll never use a google on-hub device, nor Amazon's thingy (Aura?) that listens to folks

I still remember the blowback on Cisco's CloudConnect service a couple of years back... where the suspicion was that certain analytics would be sent "home" to be monetized, etc - that turned into a real trainwreck for them...

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...tory-monetized-and-killed-at-their-discretion

It really caught them off-guard, and eventually they rolled back on much of it...

http://blogs.cisco.com/home/update-answering-our-customers-questions-about-cisco-connect-cloud-2

----------

Back on topic...

Checking Linksys SmartWiFi, this is the only data they collect/use to facilitate their SmartWifi product - this is straight from their Web Site -- http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=143604

Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account does not actively track, collect or store personal info or usage data for any other purposes, nor is it transmitted to third parties. The only information stored in the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account are the following:

i. The email address you registered for your Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account
ii. Your first and last name
iii. SHA-256 encrypted password
iv. Your router’s model number
v. Your router’s hardware version
vi. Your router’s firmware version
vii. Your router’s serial number​
 
No doubt, and it's a real and legitimate concern.. and one reason why I'll never use a google on-hub device, nor Amazon's thingy (Aura?) that listens to folks

I still remember the blowback on Cisco's CloudConnect service a couple of years back... where the suspicion was that certain analytics would be sent "home" to be monetized, etc - that turned into a real trainwreck for them...

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...tory-monetized-and-killed-at-their-discretion

It really caught them off-guard, and eventually they rolled back on much of it...

http://blogs.cisco.com/home/update-answering-our-customers-questions-about-cisco-connect-cloud-2

----------

Back on topic...

Checking Linksys SmartWiFi, this is the only data they collect/use to facilitate their SmartWifi product - this is straight from their Web Site -- http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=143604

Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account does not actively track, collect or store personal info or usage data for any other purposes, nor is it transmitted to third parties. The only information stored in the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account are the following:

i. The email address you registered for your Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Account
ii. Your first and last name
iii. SHA-256 encrypted password
iv. Your router’s model number
v. Your router’s hardware version
vi. Your router’s firmware version
vii. Your router’s serial number​


And there is nothing that prevents them from changing their privacy statements to read however it suits them tomorrow, next week, month or year.

This is a major issue with cloud connected/controlled devices. The manufacturers are not the end all and be all in the last word of internet security or privacy - and they care little if they screw it up 'a little' here and there.

I would stay far and wide from any such company. Let alone using or recommending their products to friends, family or (shudder) customers.
 
And there is nothing that prevents them from changing their privacy statements to read however it suits them tomorrow, next week, month or year.

This is a major issue with cloud connected/controlled devices. The manufacturers are not the end all and be all in the last word of internet security or privacy - and they care little if they screw it up 'a little' here and there.

I would stay far and wide from any such company. Let alone using or recommending their products to friends, family or (shudder) customers.

The problem is that as cloud-based NFV/SDN deployments become more common and increasingly inexpensive, more and more companies are going to adopt them.

The day when you can no longer be completely disconnected from the cloud is approaching.
 
The problem is that as cloud-based NFV/SDN deployments become more common and increasingly inexpensive, more and more companies are going to adopt them.

The day when you can no longer be completely disconnected from the cloud is approaching.

So wrong. Especially for routers that control your world wide access (and the www to you).
 
Thank you all for the great answers! The help people are giving on this forum is excellent! :)

I think for this I'm going to go with a Linksys router, managed via their cloud, or possibly an older router I have lying around with OpenWRT, and scheduled reboots, and WAN SSH in.

Thank you all. :)
 
So wrong. Especially for routers that control your world wide access (and the www to you).

I work for one of the largest ISPs in the world and we're already using NFV in about 50% of our network. We're deploying SDN and NFV in some extremely large enterprise networks as we speak. I know what I'm talking about and I'll leave it at that.
 
I work for one of the largest ISPs in the world and we're already using NFV in about 50% of our network. We're deploying SDN and NFV in some extremely large enterprise networks as we speak. I know what I'm talking about and I'll leave it at that.

That may be relevant to huge ISP's, but that doesn't change the perspective from a home or small business user / owner that depends on a router to keep the rest of the world outside where it belongs.
 
That may be relevant to huge ISP's, but that doesn't change the perspective from a home or small business user / owner that depends on a router to keep the rest of the world outside where it belongs.

The market for smaller deployments is already further ahead. Cisco/Meraki and Aerohive are already completely cloud-based. As costs continue to decrease, more and more consumer manufacturers will jump on board. Hardware revenues are stagnant and margins are as thin as they can possibly be without taking a loss. Services, particularly ones with embedded revenue, are much easier to monetize at high margins.

What Linksys and Netgear are doing with cloud-based management just starts to scratch the surface. It's only going to become more and more prevalent as time goes on.
 
The market for smaller deployments is already further ahead. Cisco/Meraki and Aerohive are already completely cloud-based. As costs continue to decrease, more and more consumer manufacturers will jump on board. Hardware revenues are stagnant and margins are as thin as they can possibly be without taking a loss. Services, particularly ones with embedded revenue, are much easier to monetize at high margins.

What Linksys and Netgear are doing with cloud-based management just starts to scratch the surface. It's only going to become more and more prevalent as time goes on.


And I guess that is why I don't use Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive, Linksys or Netgear then.
 
I work for one of the largest ISPs in the world and we're already using NFV in about 50% of our network. We're deploying SDN and NFV in some extremely large enterprise networks as we speak. I know what I'm talking about and I'll leave it at that

Similar line of business here - and SDN/NFV is pretty huge...

Remember, there are many kinds of clouds out there - private (wholly owned), leased space, and then of course the public cloud - so a lot depends on the application and the provider...
 
I guess that is why I don't use Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive, Linksys or Netgear then.

Don't fear the cloud - just understand it...

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Dropbox, Netflix - they're all in the cloud these days...

And that's at the app layer - as the ISP, most if not all, have significant cloud initiatives these days - with appropriate constraints, but what folks might think of as a single point of service now... likely is cloud..
 
Don't fear the cloud - just understand it...

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Dropbox, Netflix - they're all in the cloud these days...

And that's at the app layer - as the ISP, most if not all, have significant cloud initiatives these days - with appropriate constraints, but what folks might think of as a single point of service now... likely is cloud..


Don't need to understand it if I don't use those types of services. And besides, 'understanding' is usually taking the company in question at their word that it is safe, secure and unbreakable.

From here, everything is breakable and therefore I limit my risk by not using an inherently insecure 'service'.
 
Which leads us back to the original comment - there will come a day, probably not too far off, where you have few, if any, options that allow you continue your existing buying behavior. The "cloud" is nimble, scalable, and most importantly, CHEAP. To the manufacturers themselves, it's a new (and higher-margin) revenue stream.

I know that your implication that you don't use Linksys or Netgear means you use Asus. Asus has a cloud-based service too and they intend to leverage it.
 

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