Belkin To Offer Firmware Fix For Router Hijacking

L-Train8 writes "Belkin has an announcement at the bottom of their homepage about the spam router. They have decided to disable the 'feature' that hijacks a random http request every 8 hours and redirects to a webpage advertising their parental control system. This will require a firmware upgrade. The message says details will be forthcoming. Interestingly, while I was preparing this submission, the message changed. Originally, it included a snippy remark about how what they were doing was not spam, despite what everyone on the internet says. The new version is much less testy."

Comments

"anonymous usage statistics?"

[henc]

Although they remove this feature, what other 'usage statistics'-logging-features are silently embedded?

My newer D-Link 604 router has some statistics and a thorough logging function (which is displayed in the web gui). - Is all of it really visible to the end user?

It's a good bet from the manufacturers that the device will be online all the time.
Perhaps one should install a box to surveil the router/firewall, if any connections are initiated from the router?

henc

Re:"anonymous usage statistics?"

[Bowie J. Poag]

No, but your D-Link 604 router is a piece of shit.. I should know, I own one too, unfortunately.

The router allows Windows XP to bypass normal user/administrator authentication on the router, and add entires to the firewall table.. Have a look at the firewall page on the router, and see if there's two entries for "msmsgs" that you didn't make. Ever wonder how those got there, especially in light of the fact your router is supposed to be password protected? Gee, thanks D-Link!

Concievably, any schmuck out there could easilly write a virus that pollutes the firewall table in the same manner. I'm surprised nobody has done so already.