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Belkin To Offer Firmware Fix For Router Hijacking

Posted by timothy on from the testing-the-waters dept.

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."

5 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Snippy comment by ssafarik · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Old Comment:
    -----
    Important message from Belkin:
    Belkin is aware of some recent postings that claim that Belkin wireless routers are spamming users during the setup process and periodically thereafter. It is not now, nor has it ever been, the policy of Belkin to intentionally spam our customers or anyone else. Belkin offers a free trial of our parental control feature in our routers, and to make our customers aware of the feature itself and to give them the opportunity to take advantage of the free trial, we have tried to direct users to the information regarding the parental control features. However, since this has become a source of concern to our users, and it is Belkin policy to address the concerns of our users quickly, Belkin has decided to remove this function from the routers. Each router's firmware that incorporates parental control as an option will be changed.

    Please expect more detailed information to follow early next week. Thank you.

    Current Comment:
    -----
    Important message from Belkin:
    We at Belkin apologize for the recent trouble our customers have experienced with the wireless router/browser redirect issue. We will be offering firmware fixes available for download early next week. We do not have exact details yet but we can tell you now that each Router's firmware that incorporates Parental Control as an option will be changed.

    Please expect more detailed information to follow early next week. Thank you.

  2. Re:In case their message changes again... by Mir322 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Important message from Belkin:
    Belkin is aware of some recent postings that claim that Belkin wireless routers are spamming users during the setup process and periodically thereafter. It is not now, nor has it ever been, the policy of Belkin to intentionally spam our customers or anyone else. Belkin offers a free trial of our parental control feature in our routers, and to make our customers aware of the feature itself and to give them the opportunity to take advantage of the free trial, we have tried to direct users to the information regarding the parental control features. However, since this has become a source of concern to our users, and it is Belkin policy to address the concerns of our users quickly, Belkin has decided to remove this function from the routers. Each router's firmware that incorporates parental control as an option will be changed.

    Please expect more detailed information to follow early next week. Thank you.

    ---

    --
    "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."- Friedrich Nietzsche
  3. Re:In case their message changes again... by (startx) · · Score: 1, Redundant

    oops, this is the google cache, the previous link was to the search results.

  4. The Original Message by EvilStein · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Maybe they changed it because it was long & boring. :P

    "Important message from Belkin:
    Belkin is aware of some recent postings that claim that Belkin wireless routers are spamming users during the setup process and periodically thereafter. It is not now, nor has it ever been, the policy of Belkin to intentionally spam our customers or anyone else. Belkin offers a free trial of our parental control feature in our routers, and to make our customers aware of the feature itself and to give them the opportunity to take advantage of the free trial, we have tried to direct users to the information regarding the parental control features. However, since this has become a source of concern to our users, and it is Belkin policy to address the concerns of our users quickly, Belkin has decided to remove this function from the routers. Each router's firmware that incorporates parental control as an option will be changed.

    Please expect more detailed information to follow early next week. Thank you."

  5. In case you missed it... by knisa · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Original text:

    Important message from Belkin:
    Belkin is aware of some recent postings that claim that Belkin wireless routers are spamming users during the setup process and periodically thereafter. It is not now, nor has it ever been, the policy of Belkin to intentionally spam our customers or anyone else. Belkin offers a free trial of our parental control feature in our routers, and to make our customers aware of the feature itself and to give them the opportunity to take advantage of the free trial, we have tried to direct users to the information regarding the parental control features. However, since this has become a source of concern to our users, and it is Belkin policy to address the concerns of our users quickly, Belkin has decided to remove this function from the routers. Each router's firmware that incorporates parental control as an option will be changed.

    Please expect more detailed information to follow early next week. Thank you.

    Google Cache

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