Belkin Router Owners Suffering Massive Outages

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Belkin Router Owners Suffering Massive Outages

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 7, 2014 @07:49AM from the who-needs-functioning-equipment-anyway dept.

An anonymous reader writes: ISPs around the country are being kept busy today answering calls from frustrated customers with Belkin routers. Overnight, a firmware issue left many of the Belkin devices with no access to the customer's broadband connection. Initial speculation was that a faulty firmware upgrade caused the devices to lose connectivity, but even users with automatic updates disabled are running into trouble. The problem seems to be that the routers "occasionally ping heartbeat.belkin.com to detect network connectivity," but are suddenly unable to get a response. Belkin has acknowledged the issue and posted a workaround while they work on a fix.

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Oh hey, consumers! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2014-10-07 07:52 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah, we sold an untold number of plastic boxes that don't work correctly if we ever stop responding to pings... Why would that ever be a problem? Companies never go bankrupt, deliberately kill old products, or 'change strategic direction'.
1. Re:Oh hey, consumers! by gandhi_2 · 2014-10-07 08:00 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I'm going to be naming all my deadman switches "heartbeat" now. (:
  
  --
  THL phish sticks
2. Re:Oh hey, consumers! by i+kan+reed · 2014-10-07 08:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It was a part of their advanced simulation program that slipped out. This particular feature was designed to simulate what it's like to be a Comcast customer.
3. Re:Oh hey, consumers! by sbrown7792 · 2014-10-08 04:11 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Just as long as you ensure that your botnet doesn't use Belkin routers.
In retrospect by XxtraLarGe · 2014-10-07 08:10 · Score: 2, Funny

It was probably short-sighted to write their main event loop like this:
while (!((date.day == 7) && (date.month == 10) && (date.year == 2014))) { // rest of router code follows }

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Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Re:One rule comes to mind... by gstoddart · 2014-10-07 08:14 · Score: 5, Funny

ALWAYS be the master of your own network.
Dude, such a wasted opportunity to say "Master of your own domain ".

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Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Re:First! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-07 08:36 · Score: 5, Funny

Looks like you were behind a Belkin router.
Re:Ummm - did we forget the obvious? by dunkindave · 2014-10-07 08:36 · Score: 4, Funny

Many years ago I had a similar problem with Comcast. Their system's DHCP wasn't giving me an address, so I called the tech support number. The person on the phone told me that he couldn't help me with my problem since help with all DHCP issues was only handled through their new online text chat system. I pointed out that I couldn't get to their handy online text chat system because I COULDN'T GET AN IP ADDRESS. His only response was that maybe I could use a neighbor's computer. Sigh.
Re:One rule comes to mind... by bobbied · 2014-10-07 08:41 · Score: 3, Funny

Yea, I know, but I'm married...

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"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Re:Mod parent up. by Kazoo+the+Clown · 2014-10-07 11:07 · Score: 4, Funny

If Microsoft decides to ping BofA to determine if the internet is alive, that'd be just about right.