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[R7800] settings/disable/optimization documentation consolidation

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NetBytes

Senior Member
Optimization can mean many things. This thread describes a number of steps which were tested
by @HELLO_wORLD, @kamoj, @R. Gerrits, myself and others in early 2020 and subsequent tests since.
Initially the idea was to stop the R7800 from running a number of processes which sent data to
Netgear and Amazon. These 'snitch' programs running on the router send data to who knows.
Much thanks to those mentioned above to discovering/testing these settings.

This discussion requires your R7800 is running a recent version of @Voxel's firmware.
At the time of this writing the most current is 1.0.2.80.5SF.
These settings can also be manipulated using the great @kamoj addon, including the separate settings needed for the R9000. This initial post will be edited/updated as needed.

Some things are nvram settings which can stop processes from running or modify the R7800's firmware web output.
Others are programs and scripts which are modified to never run, thereby stopping the undesired behavior.

This is an attempt to consolidate the knowledge learned into a single thread instead of the various
random threads where the conversation has occurred and the knowledge base has grown.
Links to some of these threads can be found at the end of this post.

All of these things can be set/modified through the telnet interface of the router.
If you have a USB stick permanently attached to your R7800 you can create a script which will autorun
on router startup to set any or all of these and survive Voxel firmware upgrades.

As shown below the scripts/settings are the most restrictive and turn off everything mentioned.
Make sure to modify the script as necessary to only do the things you actually want.


The following can be used as an autorun script or the lines can be entered via telnet.
Code:
#!/bin/sh
nvram unset new_sold_board
nvram set nocloud=1
nvram set nokwilt=1
nvram set transmission_disable=1
nvram set qos_endis_on=0
nvram set endis_traffic=0
nvram set streamboost_enable=0
nvram set readycloud_enable=0
nvram set green_enable_autorefresh_status=0
nvram set upnp_enable=0
nvram set upnp_enable_upnp=0
nvram set upnp_enable_autoScan=0
nvram set upnp_enableMedia=0
nvram set upnp_enable_tivo=no
nvram set ftp_enable_internet=0
nvram set usb_enableFTP=0
nvram set traffic_disable_wan=1
nvram commit

# Disable print services
[ -x /sbin/KC_BONJOUR ] && chmod -x /sbin/KC_BONJOUR
[ -x /sbin/KC_PRINT ] && chmod -x /sbin/KC_PRINT
ps | grep -F '/sbin/KC_' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill 2>/dev/null

# Disable call services (and enable visibility in GUI)
[ "$(grep -F 'config set new_sold_board=1' /etc/init.d/boot)" ] && { sed -i 's/\/bin\/config set new_sold_board=1/\/bin\/config unset new_sold_board/' /etc/init.d/boot; config unset new_sold_board; }

#disable Amazon Alexa and netgear 'snitch' programs
[ -x /usr/sbin/aws-iot ] && { chmod -x /usr/sbin/aws-iot; /etc/init.d/aws disable; }
[ -x /usr/sbin/ra_check ] && { chmod -x /usr/sbin/ra_check; }

# Disable traffic meter
[ -x /sbin/traffic_meter ] && { /etc/init.d/traffic_meter stop; chmod -x /sbin/traffic_meter; }

# Disable stream boost
[ -x /etc/init.d/streamboost ] && { /etc/init.d/streamboost stop; /etc/init.d/streamboost disable; chmod -x /etc/init.d/streamboost; chmod -x /usr/sbin/streamboost_status_monit; }

# Disable QoS
[ -x /sbin/dni_qos ] && { /etc/init.d/dni-qos stop; chmod -x /sbin/dni_qos; }
[ -x /sbin/qos.sh ] && chmod -x /sbin/qos.sh

# EXPERIMENTAL: Disable the process which checks for aws & streamboost that we already disabled - strongly suggested by @kamoj to *NOT* do this - BEWARE
[ -x /sbin/check_status.sh ] && { chmod -x /sbin/check_status.sh; ps|grep -F '/sbin/check_status.sh'|cut -d' ' -f1|xargs kill 2>/dev/null; }

# forcibly ensure transmission can not run
chmod -x /usr/bin/transmission-daemon
chmod -x /usr/bin/transmission-remote


What do these things mean/do:
new_sold_board - This setting controls whether the R7800 owner has the ablilty to opt-out of router usage data collection which is then sent to NetGear.
On newer R7800s sold recently this setting forces the router as opt-in and does not allow the older usual opt-out web interface to appear.

nocloud, nokwilt & transmission_disable - from the Voxel Readme: disables ReadyCLOUD, Kwilt and transmission if you will never use them.

qos_endis_on - endable/disable the Quality of Service processing on the R7800

endis_traffic - enable/disable the R7800 traffic meter. This should always be off to avoid R7800 internal memory chip corruption.

streamboost_enable - This 'snitch' sends information about your network use and attempts to update the QOS database which is long dead

readycloud_enable - another turn on/off ReadyCloud

green_enable_autorefresh_status - The green thing is the Netgear Downloader. The auto refresh status is the same as what you can find in Web settings/ADVANCED/Downloader Settings. The downloading task status will be refreshed automatically according to specified rate.

upnp_enable - enable/disable some basic upnp processes

upnp_enable_upnp - enable/disable some other basic upnp processes

upnp_enable_autoScan - enable/disable the R7800 searching for other upnp processes on the internal network

upnp_enableMedia - enable/disable the R7800 acting as a media server

upnp_enable_tivo - enable/disable the R7800 acting as a tivo media server

ftp_enable_internet - enable/disable ftp connections from the internet

usb_enableFTP - allow the R7800 to serve up the USB partition over FTP connections

traffic_disable_wan - This is only used in /sbin/traffic_meter. Looks like this variable controls whether or not traffic_meter should disable the WAN connection once a certain limit is reached.

# Disable print services - if you don't have a USB printer directly connected to your R7800 you can disable these processes

# Disable call servives (and enable visibility in GUI) - previously described new_sold_board

# disable Amazon Alexa and netgear 'snitch' programs - stop and disable these processes from running

# disable streamboost - stop and disable this process from running

# disable Qos - stop and disable the QoS processing and updates

# EXPERIMENTAL: *BEWARE* Included for completeness. Disables another process which checks for aws & streamboost (both of which we already disabled)
- strongly suggested by @kamoj to *NOT* do this

# forcibly ensure transmission can not run - ensure the binaries for transmission cannot run regardless of nvram settings

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Threads where parts of this conversation have occurred:
 
Last edited:
Thank you, this is a nice compilation, especially together with the explanations! :)

It might be worth mentioning that all these settings and others are
easily switched on/off from the GUI in the kamoj add-on v5.4+,
including the separate settings needed for the R9000.
 
BTW, what's the way to make this an automatic script? Is it the post-mount.sh on the USB drive or something else?
 
BTW, what's the way to make this an automatic script? Is it the post-mount.sh on the USB drive or something else?
The best way, IMO, is to create a separate script with all those commands that you can put for example in auto mount/scripts, same place as auto-mount.sh, like my-custom-startup-script.sh
Then you apply chmod +x to it.
Then in the post-mount.sh script, you just add the line to run the script, for my example it would be: ./my-custom-startup-script.sh

Of course, you can name the script as you want and place it where you want (on the USB), and you just have to put the right path to it in post-mount.sh
 
Optimization can mean many things. This thread describes a number of steps which were tested
by @HELLO_wORLD, @kamoj, @R. Gerrits, myself and others in early 2020 and subsequent tests since.
Initially the idea was to stop the R7800 from running a number of processes which sent data to
Netgear and Amazon. These 'snitch' programs running on the router send data to who knows.
Much thanks to those mentioned above to discovering/testing these settings.

This discussion requires your R7800 is running a recent version of @Voxel's firmware.
At the time of this writing the most current is 1.0.2.80.5SF.
These settings can also be manipulated using the great @kamoj addon, including the separate settings needed for the R9000. This initial post will be edited/updated as needed.

Some things are nvram settings which can stop processes from running or modify the R7800's firmware web output.
Others are programs and scripts which are modified to never run, thereby stopping the undesired behavior.

This is an attempt to consolidate the knowledge learned into a single thread instead of the various
random threads where the conversation has occurred and the knowledge base has grown.
Links to some of these threads can be found at the end of this post.

All of these things can be set/modified through the telnet interface of the router.
If you have a USB stick permanently attached to your R7800 you can create a script which will autorun
on router startup to set any or all of these and survive Voxel firmware upgrades.

As shown below the scripts/settings are the most restrictive and turn off everything mentioned.
Make sure to modify the script as necessary to only do the things you actually want.


The following can be used as an autorun script or the lines can be entered via telnet.
Code:
#!/bin/sh
nvram unset new_sold_board
nvram set nocloud=1
nvram set nokwilt=1
nvram set transmission_disable=1
nvram set qos_endis_on=0
nvram set endis_traffic=0
nvram set streamboost_enable=0
nvram set readycloud_enable=0
nvram set green_enable_autorefresh_status=0
nvram set upnp_enable=0
nvram set upnp_enable_upnp=0
nvram set upnp_enable_autoScan=0
nvram set upnp_enableMedia=0
nvram set upnp_enable_tivo=no
nvram set ftp_enable_internet=0
nvram set usb_enableFTP=0
nvram set traffic_disable_wan=1
nvram commit

# Disable print services
[ -x /sbin/KC_BONJOUR ] && chmod -x /sbin/KC_BONJOUR
[ -x /sbin/KC_PRINT ] && chmod -x /sbin/KC_PRINT
ps | grep -F '/sbin/KC_' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kill 2>/dev/null

# Disable call services (and enable visibility in GUI)
[ "$(grep -F 'config set new_sold_board=1' /etc/init.d/boot)" ] && { sed -i 's/\/bin\/config set new_sold_board=1/\/bin\/config unset new_sold_board/' /etc/init.d/boot; config unset new_sold_board; }

#disable Amazon Alexa and netgear 'snitch' programs
[ -x /usr/sbin/aws-iot ] && { chmod -x /usr/sbin/aws-iot; /etc/init.d/aws disablle; }
[ -x /usr/sbin/ra_check ] && { chmod -x /usr/sbin/ra_check; }

# Disable traffic meter
[ -x /sbin/traffic_meter ] && { /etc/init.d/traffic_meter stop; chmod -x /sbin/traffic_meter; }

# Disable stream boost
[ -x /etc/init.d/streamboost ] && { /etc/init.d/streamboost stop; /etc/init.d/streamboost disable; chmod -x /etc/init.d/streamboost; chmod -x /usr/sbin/streamboost_status_monit; }

# Disable QoS
[ -x /sbin/dni_qos ] && { /etc/init.d/dni-qos stop; chmod -x /sbin/dni_qos; }
[ -x /sbin/qos.sh ] && chmod -x /sbin/qos.sh

# EXPERIMENTAL: Disable the process which checks for aws & streamboost that we already disabled - strongly suggested by @kamoj to *NOT* do this - BEWARE
[ -x /sbin/check_status.sh ] && { chmod -x /sbin/check_status.sh; ps|grep -F '/sbin/check_status.sh'|cut -d' ' -f1|xargs kill 2>/dev/null; }

# forcibly ensure transmission can not run
chmod -x /usr/bin/transmission-daemon
chmod -x /usr/bin/transmission-remote


What do these things mean/do:
new_sold_board - This setting controls whether the R7800 owner has the ablilty to opt-out of router usage data collection which is then sent to NetGear.
On newer R7800s sold recently this setting forces the router as opt-in and does not allow the older usual opt-out web interface to appear.

nocloud, nokwilt & transmission_disable - from the Voxel Readme: disables ReadyCLOUD, Kwilt and transmission if you will never use them.

qos_endis_on - endable/disable the Quality of Service processing on the R7800

endis_traffic - enable/disable the R7800 traffic meter. This should always be off to avoid R7800 internal memory chip corruption.

streamboost_enable - This 'snitch' sends information about your network use and attempts to update the QOS database which is long dead

readycloud_enable - another turn on/off ReadyCloud

green_enable_autorefresh_status - The green thing is the Netgear Downloader. The auto refresh status is the same as what you can find in Web settings/ADVANCED/Downloader Settings. The downloading task status will be refreshed automatically according to specified rate.
upnp_enable - enable/disable some basic upnp processes

upnp_enable_upnp - enable/disable some other basic upnp processes

upnp_enable_autoScan - enable/disable the R7800 searching for other upnp processes on the internal network

upnp_enableMedia - enable/disable the R7800 acting as a media server

upnp_enable_tivo - enable/disable the R7800 acting as a tivo media server

ftp_enable_internet - enable/disable ftp connections from the internet

usb_enableFTP - allow the R7800 to serve up the USB partition over FTP connections

traffic_disable_wan - *researching/confirming what this setting does / will update*

# Disable print services - if you don't have a USB printer directly connected to your R7800 you can disable these processes

# Disable call servives (and enable visibility in GUI) - previously described new_sold_board

# disable Amazon Alexa and netgear 'snitch' programs - stop and disable these processes from running

# disable streamboost - stop and disable this process from running

# disable Qos - stop and disable the QoS processing and updates

# EXPERIMENTAL: *BEWARE* Included for completeness. Disables another process which checks for aws & streamboost (both of which we already disabled)
- strongly suggested by @kamoj to *NOT* do this

# forcibly ensure transmission can not run - ensure the binaries for transmission cannot run regardless of nvram settings

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Threads where parts of this conversation have occurred:

dear all,
i don't understand how can i create an automatic script to put into my usb1 to execute at router startup, is possible to have example?
thanks in advice
 
i don't understand how can i create an automatic script to put into my usb1 to execute at router startup, is possible to have example?
You need an USB-stick that is formatted with ext4 (or perhaps ext2/3 will also work).
If you previously used the stick on Windows, then it is probably exfat, fat32 or ntfs. -> in that case you'll need to reformat the stick, so make sure it contains nothing that you want to keep.


You can check via:
mount |grep /mnt/

From the above command you also see on which folder it is mounted. (usually /tmp/mnt/sda1)

Assuming it is already ext4 and it is indeed /tmp/mnt/sda1, do these steps:

mkdir -p /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/
nano /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/post-mount.sh


And in the nano editor copy paste these lines:
Code:
#!/bin/sh

command1
command2
command3

Exit and save.
And finally make the script executable:
chmod +x /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/post-mount.sh

If your stick is not yet ext4, then you can reformat it with mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
Again warning, this will remove all content on that stick.
Also make sure that it is indeed sda1, otherwise use the correct sdX1.
And you might need to unmount the stick first with
umount /dev/sda1

Edit: reformatting of USB-stick is apparently not required.
(not sure how chmod +x command would react on ntfs/fat32/extfs. might be that that command isn't even needed)
 
Last edited:
Actually there is no need to format it for Linux. E.g. NTFS/FAT32 is working ok as well!
(But for Entware you need e.g. ext2/3/4)
You need an USB-stick that is formatted with ext4 (or perhaps ext2/3 will also work).
If you previously used the stick on Windows, then it is probably exfat, fat32 or ntfs. -> in that case you'll need to reformat the stick, so make sure it contains nothing that you want to keep.

You can check via:
mount |grep /mnt/

From the above command tou also see on which folder it is mounted. (usually /tmp/mnt/sda1)

Assuming it is already ext4 and it is indeed /tmp/mnt/sda1, do these steps:

mkdir -p /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/
nano /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/post-mount.sh


And in the nano editor copy paste these lines:
Code:
#!/bin/sh

command1
command2
command3

Exit and save.
And finally make the script executable:
chmod +x /tmp/mnt/sda1/autorun/scripts/post-mount.sh

If your stick is not yet ext4, then you can reformat it with mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
Again warning, this will remove all content on that stick.
Also make sure that it is indeed sda1, otherwise use the correct sdX1.
And you might need to unmount the stick first with umount /dev/sda1
 
Just a question. If these variables are known and the command to enable/disable is known, can’t they be put in Kamoj’s add on in the “Settings” section?
 
I think they are all there already since long time, and even more not in the list above, as well as specifics for R9000.
Please tell me if something is missing/not working, and I'll try to fix it!
Just a question. If these variables are known and the command to enable/disable is known, can’t they be put in Kamoj’s add on in the “Settings” section?
 
It is only used in /sbin/traffic_meter
And after looking at the output of strings /sbin/traffic_meter and some logical thinking, I'd say this variable controls whether or not traffic_meter should disable the WAN connection once a certain limit is reached.
Thank you much! OP is updated.
Based on logical thinking - as a default (on top of our disable of traffic_meter) would it be better to set it to zero to ensure this never happens?
 
I’m sorry but I’m not seeing the options listed in this thread and the same options in the kamoj add on. Are they named differently?
 
Not sure which option you don't find, so I'm making a guess: You find it here:
ADVANCED: Kamoj Menu: Settings: Router Analytics / Data Collection / Phone Home: Disable: Traffic Meter service
PS
Most code for disabling function can be found in the kamoj.sh script file.
I’m sorry but I’m not seeing the options listed in this thread and the same options in the kamoj add on. Are they named differently?
 
Last edited:

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