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Belkin Router Owners Suffering Massive Outages
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.
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'.
Did Belkin tell you their router was dependent on their site being up?
"When I die, the world ends." - Belkin policy
No router should ever be dependent on phoning home to a server in order to work. (No router should be engaging in any communication at all that I haven't told it to!) This is BAD - Broken As Designed. I'm awfully glad that I don't use Belkin stuff.
... see our workaround online. Not that I have a better solution, though.
Yeah! Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?
Sounds more like "all of the internets is broken because this one site won't work" complaint I get all the time.
It's a ROUTER. If the physical link is up then try pushing packets through it. That's all.
If you want to show connectivity to a specific site then show that in the diagnostic page on that router. But keep pushing packets.
any type of device, they won't get my money for even a power strip.
They earned my boycott honestly years ago. I still haven't let them off the hook. Comments on that article exposed other reasons not to even give them the satisfaction of wiping your ass their products.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Protip: From now on, run Slashdot and Sourceforge through different routers so they don't go down at the same time.
Outlaw such checks, including for the entertainment cartel.
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
}
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
And they bought Linksys from Cisco. Deep sigh.
You got me into this! You were the ideologue! I'm only a poor assassin! - Twenty evocations, Bruce Sterling
timeout...
Many years ago this may have been the case, but we now have the Internet on our phones when home Internet is down.
Dude, such a wasted opportunity to say "Master of your own domain ".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Asus Router Owners Suffering Massive Smugness
I'm getting a reply back from heartbeat.belkin.com. I don't have a belkin router to test with.
Old cable modems sucked. Mine would often lock up, needing a power cycle to resume working. Very annoying when I was at work.
The quick and easy solution is to monitor the connection status and flip a relay to reboot the modem. But how to monitor the connection? Setting a single host or IP seemed like a bad idea because it would have added an extra, and totally unnecessary, single point of failure.
Instead, my home router (slackware box with 2 ethernet cards) collects the IPs that I connect to (by watching the conntrack stuff in /proc/ ), and if it can ping them, adds them to the ping list. It then pings random selections from that list to verify connectivity. IPs are removed if they are unreachable for a while (until it decides the connection is down; no point purging the whole list because of an outage).
Took me a couple of hours to set up and debug, back in like 2002 or 2005 or whenever I wrote it. I presume that there is some free software to do the same task by now.
Monitoring a single fixed hostname is foolish, at best. And this is like the 3rd or 4th big story (that I can think of) about home routers acting badly because of hardcoded values.
See that "Preview" button?
There workaround is to use Google's public DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)???
Looks like you were behind a Belkin router.
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.
This is true for all people who understand the code of OpenWRT in its entirety.
Else it's simply a choice of picking who to trust.
It's very hard to find affordable routers, with the latest-gen tech (802.11ac, USB 3.0, etc) which support flashing and have decent driver support on Linux or *WRT, though. Many routers have such anemic SoCs that they barely run with the built-in firmware, let alone something custom that isn't hand-optimized for the device.
I'm close to resigning to the fact that every router I have going forward is gonna have to be an Intel NUC. Even a Celery processor is many times faster than those MIPS pieces of crap they ship in most routers that cost under $1000.
Yea, I know, but I'm married...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Oh boy, they're going to hire at least double the amount of astroturphers now to make up for the negative reviews. (they got caught doing that before).
interesting.
Shit products at top of the line prices being reason one. But this is a close #2
Comcast does the same thing. I've experienced rare Internet outages and usually wait 20 minutes or so to call to see if there's a problem and the auto answer will confirm that but also say that one can get more information about outages by going to Comcast's home page. Hmmmm. I don't have a smart phone and I'm just out of luck. Ridiculous. I guess I could go to Starbucks or some other public hotspot, but why?
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Entertainingly enough, I've run into this issue before. You will encounter the same issue when trying to connect the affected Belkin routers through the Cisco Clean Access NAC here (AKA Campus Housing), because devices are quarantined in the VLAN ghetto until successfully authenticated and associated.
So, these terrible, terrible Belkin routers try to phone home, and when they are unsuccessful they redirect all HTTP requests to the router's administration page. Since sessions are required to authenticate via HTTPS, there is no way to login. Extensive investigation revealed no way to disable this behavior on the client side, SOP for anyone calling with connection problems involving a Belkin router became "Officially unsupported. Return it and get something else that isn't a Belkin."
I am beyond pleased that this incredibly foolish decision on Belkin's part has come back to bite them in general, and hilariously entertained to see that Belkin's temporary workaround was effectively "spoof DNS traffic to heartbeat.belkin.com to a server on your local network that will pingback to fix your ISP's broken clients"
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
My favorite email from my tech support days was, "I can't send email."
Ok. You can't send email so you sent me an email to tell me. And it worked so, clearly, you can send email. It was always an email address they'd mangled except when it was a .vacation message reply.
Not sure I agree with you. I have a set of Netgear routers that you can get used for under $50 each that work with OpenWRT well and are not that far out of date. (Netgear actually used OpenWRT so they work well given that they have to release the source code.) Now if you are looking for something more than a router, say a media server or VPN gateway, they might be a bit light, but as a standard wireless router they are quite adequate. They have a lot of flash, good memory size and reasonable performance to suit me and my network is not lightweight. We routinely stream 2 or more HD streams and support my son's gaming needs all at the same time. We have 7 PC's, various tablets and HD media players.
If you think you *really* need USB 3.0 and the latest wireless spec, then you already have a lot more to spend than I do. USB 3.0 might be nice if you where running a file server, but having the latest high speed wireless connection requires you have both new routers as well as laptops/adapters, tablets, media players and the like. If you really want a file/media server, don't use a USB disk anyway, you have the money, buy a NAS.
So I don't feel for you if you are complaining about cost if you really think 802.11ac and USB 3.0 are necessary...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
It might be useful to have a way to disable this 'feature' on the client side.
The bad? There isn't.
The good? This 'feature' already broke connections for anything going through the campus NAC even before their heartbeat server crapped out. SOP for any Belkin-involved problems became "Belkins break RFC2616, they are officially unsupported, go return it and get something that doesn't suck." ...so there aren't any of them still in use to be broken today. Yay!
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
I've experienced rare Internet outages and usually wait 20 minutes or so to call to see if there's a problem and the auto answer will confirm that but also say that one can get more information about outages by going to Comcast's home page.
Dude, you should know, you always get better response from customer support about internet outages if you send them an email instead of calling.
I once had a Comcast call handler try to upsell me to Xfinity voice for my home phone while I was calling about a complete cable outage (no TV, no Internet).
This is true for all people who understand the code of OpenWRT in its entirety.
Else it's simply a choice of picking who to trust.
Personally, I'd go with the software that has the open source which I can obtain and look at if I want over the "you will never get the code" from the router vendor. (At least at the consumer level.) I'll trust the one I could possibly verify over the one I never could.
I think your trust is well placed if you choose the ready build OpenWRT firmware... If you don't like that, build your own in a VM like I had to because they don't release firmware for my specific router.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Can't wait to see what happens years from now should Microsoft's NLA site become unreachable to one or more address families as the world swashes between IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity as a result of failed NLA probes.
There is no need or benefit for this garbage certainly not by default and certainly no excuse to failure in this manner. Heartbeat is code for more excuses for vendors to be in the loop and collect data when they have no legitimate business doing so.
I just went to www.dd-wrt.com and did a quick scan of their firmware and the results are a bit spotty but possible for some types of routers. But if your router is on the list then I'd get the hell out of the Belkin umbrella altogether. Might wish to check out Tomato, OpenWRT or FreeWRT too. If your router isn't upgradeable, smash the fucker in a fit of rage (it'll feel good, I promise) and after you collect enough empty bottles, go buy yourself a new one that isn't made by Belkin and IS on on of these firmware upgrade lists.
Manufacturer Model Revision Supported Activation required
Belkin 7230-4 v6000tc not possible no
Belkin F5D7130 - yes no
Belkin F5D7130 ver 2001 yes no
Belkin F5D7130-4 v1010 yes no
Belkin F5D7130-4 v1112 yes no
Belkin F5D7130-4 v7002uk not possible no
Belkin F5D7130uk v2115uk yes no
Belkin F5D7130uk v3000ef, v3002uk yes no
Belkin F5D7230-4 1000fr, v1444, v2000df yes no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v1000, v1010, v1111, v1112, v1222de, v1223df, v122 yes no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v2000, v2000de yes no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v3000 yes no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v6000/v6002 not possible no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v7000 not possible no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v8000 not possible no
Belkin F5D7230-4 v9000 no no
Belkin F5D7230-4 vA000 not possible no
Belkin F5D7231-4 v1000df, v1000ef yes no
Belkin F5D7231-4 v1001 yes no
Belkin F5D7231-4 v1100de, v1102, v1103ee yes no
Belkin F5D7231-4 v1212UK, v1213 yes no
Belkin F5D7231-4 v2000, v2001yy, v2001df yes no
Belkin F5D7231-4P v1000 yes no
Belkin F5D7330 - yes no
Belkin F5D8230-4 v1001ea yes no
Belkin F5D8230-4 v1002 no no
Belkin F5D8231-4 - no no
Belkin F5D8232-4 1000, 1021uk wip no
Belkin F5D8233-4 ? not possible no
Belkin F5D8236-4 ? not possible no
Belkin F5D8633-4 v1 no no
Belkin F6D4230-4 v1000 not possible no
Belkin F7D3301 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D3302 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D4301 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D4302 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D7301 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D7302 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D8301 v1 yes no
Belkin F7D8302 v1 yes no
My complaint is less about absolute cost than comparative cost.
The mid-grade model of Intel NUC, Core i3, is going to ring up a bill close to $450 USD once you've purchased the core NUC unit plus all necessary parts under the hood. For that, you get USB 3.0, a dual-core processor with hyperthreading that runs circles around any router's, and dual-band 2x2 802.11ac.
To get a device that's labeled as a router or gateway or router+gateway that has comparative specs, just in terms of I/O throughput and total wifi bandwidth (nevermind computation power, since that doesn't come into play very much), you have to venture into "enterprise-grade" equipment, which is intentionally overpriced to be "as expensive as the market can bear" (and corporations can bear a lot). You'll easily spend $1500 to $2000. The only benefit is that you'll hopefully get a nice and stodgy, well-tested but very utilitarian web interface that lets you customize everything you could possibly want. Is a web interface worth $1000 or more? I don't really think so.
My next project is to stick some really nice antennae on a NUC and build a router based on Debian with better everything -- and cheaper -- than the enterprisey routers, while being much more featureful and customizable than a consumer router. Heck, I am tempted to put X and a lightweight desktop on it, so it can be used as a web browser in a pinch (like when you bork your main desktop's OS).
I use a custom built mini-ITX Linux machine as a router, running Gentoo.
NEVER use a router that you haven't loaded third party firmware onto.
Which leads to not buying hardware that won't run OpenWRT.....
Which means, nobody but you controls with the router upgrades its firmware or decides to phone home. ALWAYS be the master of your own network.
That's a GREAT idea. Now please provide a dummy proof guide that will hold the hand of every person in the world at doing this process? You'll also support this yourself for anyone having problems. Oh wait, you don't want to do that? Keep advice like this to yourself. Router firmware works fine.
At least, in the case of Windows, you can forcibly disable this "feature" with registry edits...or you can just block Microsoft IP's at your router. Routers have no way to disable stuff like this other than flashing custom firmware which is not always available depending on model.
It's very hard to find affordable routers, with the latest-gen tech (802.11ac, USB 3.0, etc) which support flashing and have decent driver support on Linux or *WRT, though. Many routers have such anemic SoCs that they barely run with the built-in firmware, let alone something custom that isn't hand-optimized for the device.
I'm close to resigning to the fact that every router I have going forward is gonna have to be an Intel NUC. Even a Celery processor is many times faster than those MIPS pieces of crap they ship in most routers that cost under $1000.
The latest Cisco ones work great. Interface is very friendly (mac like) and you can configure everything under the sun. Not to mention it comes built in with a guest wireless network which is firewalled off your primary lan.
Belkin has been making defective routers for nearly 11 years now. I can't believe people still buy their products after the 2003 HTTP hijacking fiasco. Did everyone seriously believe them when they said "we won't do it again"?
http://xkcd.com/1258/
I've bought like 3 products from Belkin, everyone of them had catastrophic failure. To me, Belkin is synonymous with failure.
My favorite brand is Logitech. Their stuff is cheap, high quality and lasts.
God spoke to me
You know, cat5 ... maybe?
...
1) Unplug Cat5 from router.
2) Plug Cat5 into computer.
3)
4) Profit, er Internet.
I know, too complicated right?
Windows registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet
EnableActiveProbing = 0
Android terminal:
settings put global captive_portal_server 127.0.0.1
settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0
For under $800 you can get an 8core(not HT, actual cores) "Atom" CPU, with 2GB of ecc memory and 8 Intel i354 server NICs. These are very recent, but Intel is breaking into the low power SOC server market. People in the PFSense forums have shown some of these systems capable of using less than one core when moving almost 10gb/s through.
I'll probably replace my current PFSense box with the next gen of these kinds of boards.
dd-wrt lets you manipulate the routing tables, which I have used to quash one device that kept "phoning home" but works fine when "home" no longer responds.
I've had issues with the last several routers, so I recently bought the very first, 100% OSS router. My thinking is that if it's open source, it's probably high quality code, and it's more likely to get updated than proprietary firmware, where they are cash incentivized to just have you buy the new router rather than fix old bugs.
As far as hardware goes, it's mid-range router hardware, N300 Wifi with respectable antennas and a ho hum 100 Mbit hardware switch. The UI was a little odd, more complex and far more options than your typical Wifi router interface.
However, in the month or so that I've had it, it's been the least problematic Wifi I've had in a few years. I live in a densely populated area with quite a few other hotspots in sight, and I haven't noticed any issues where restarting the router made a difference.
I haven't had the chance yet to hack it, but even as just a router, this is a winner. Also, support products that are consumer friendly like this one. It's not even more expensive! (Currently just $52)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Spent close to 2 hours with this in the AM. First, the ISP; ie, TWC. They directed me to Belkin. So I tried calling Belkin. It took an hour to get tech support. Their phone system kept disconnecting me. Plus I was trying to access their web site via my phone. Of course, their site was hosed, as well.
When I finally got through, it was to someone in India. She was very thorough, but ultimately no help. (Now I know why.) She assured me I would get a call back in about 2 to 4 hours with a solution.
After finishing the call and hanging up, I was out the door and headed to the nearest store. Bought a different router and am back online.
And what a surprise! Belkin never called me back with a solution. I was SO expecting it.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
This isn't the first time Belkin has implemented a hare-brained feature, only to have it cause backlash when it induces catastrophic failures across the world. I stopped buying anything with their name on it (except the occasional cable) over a decade ago, over this little feature.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Of course, this is a shared award...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
i'm sure i've heard of this before, probably a decade ago. wasn't it d-link or netgear back then? if it couldn't get a response from their ntp server it wouldn't even connect.
#include <sig.h>
It seems as though installing DD-WRT/OpenWRT/Tomato/other-non-OEM-firmware will fix it on at least some routers made by Belkin.
www.wavefront-av.com