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[Weaver]

Many  netgear routers are remotely vulnerable -
See
     https://twitter.com/threatpost/status/826190441297149953

[burakkucat]

Here is a link to the original article, without going via "Twitter".

[Weaver]

Stupid of me, I didn't spot that indirection. Thanks to Burakkucat

[Chrysalis]

one reason to move to something with ongoing development such as pfsense, then you dont need to worry about using a product that is EOL.

[Weaver]

Chrysalis makes a good point. Consumer routers are really nasty. And business grade routers and firewalls are sometimes ludicrously over-complicated, and cynically unusable, dangerously so. (Actually often under-specified often too.) I suspect this lack of usability is to keep high priests in jobs, it's the sysadmin equivalent of still writing everything in asm.

Products such as firewalls and routers ought to have an overlay that is predicate-based and policy-based, not requiring you all the time to specify the details of implementation which can be fragile, error prone and not visibly/provably correct. Were I designing one now, I would use Prolog or similar as a middle layer.

[Chrysalis]

essentially my pfsense unit is very future proof, enough hardware grunt to power future faster connectivity, any new protocol e.g. pppoe-v2 would likely get developed into the code.

my ac68 is good until AC wifi spec becomes obsolete.

The next moving target is what my 8800nl is doing and that is modem side e.g. if I move to g.fast.

I decided multiple units that are most suited for each role is better than a jack of all trades device.

[Weaver]

> I decided multiple units that are most suited for each role is better than a jack of all trades device.

Indeed.

[burakkucat]

My wish is for some entity to create a pure modem with no irrelevancies --

• Based on the latest Broadcom chip set.
• Low power consumption.
• In a metal case.
• An external lug to allow the metal case to be grounded, for shielding purposes.
• Four ports: (1) power supply, (2) xDSL line (RJ45), (3) Ethernet (RJ45) & (4) Console (RJ45).
• Configurable via the console port as to xDSL modulation: G.992.1/G.992.3/G.992.5/G.993.2, etc.

It would have to be a quality build, similar to that of a Watchfront Firebrick.

[Weaver]

I would buy a Burakkucat modem like a shot.

I have been thinking about how to put my modems in metal boxes and ground them for ages, but haven't got it cracked yet, would need to have some ventilation yet keep rf out. If I could upgrade modems like that then it would give me further options. Spent a lot of time trying to google this but got lost and in any case don't know where to start. (Old thread somewhere.)

The Draytek Vigor goes part of the way, love them but just not performant enough for my particular situation, love the PPPoEoE -> PPPoA bridging and the full 1508 PPPoE MTU, just not as aggressive as I would like. Should really test a 130 again.

Not sure about the Netgear DMxxx series modems, reports of them running very hot indeed. Don't know about security.

[Weaver]

I wonder if Watchfront or Draytek could be so persuaded? ( Draytek are not Broadcom-based iirc. )

[burakkucat]

I wonder if Watchfront . . . could be so persuaded?

Perhaps you could get on the "hot line" to Adrian Kennard? 

[Weaver]

Hot line is usually Twitter. Or IRC. I don't tend to email the poor man, sufffering with the month-long mega-cold-from-hell as he is. He gets far too many pleas from me all the time as it is for feature upgrades and daft ideas. Don't have enough hands on deck writing lots of C for the things to get all the new features in that they might like as it it, never mind my wish list.

Someone does need to do a simple, quality modem though. BT did a good job with the HuaWei HG612 in some respect ph, although of course not coming anywhere near the full Burakkucat spec-list? But it was a no-nonsense and well-respected piece of kit that did its job.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Would a metal cased modem really make much difference?  Assuming the am is to reduce interference pick up,   I would have thought the vast majority of interference was picked up by the phone lines, which would be just as damaging with/without a metal cased modem.   

For me, my modem of choice would be one that could demonstrate fire safety above and beyond EU (or whatever) standards.  It is the one piece of equipment that I very rarely switch off,  even when not home, and I do sometimes worry a little.  Not so long ago I had an outbreak of flame in an HP Proliant server...   

[burakkucat]

In The Cattery's grotto are a Watchfront Firebrick 105 and a Huawei EchoLife HG612. Both, on separate occasions, have been opened up and the respective PCBs have been scrutinised.

The build quality of one of those devices is way, way higher than the other. Rather like comparing a Rolls Royce Phantom VI with a Lada Riva. 

[Weaver]

The thing about interference pickup is that it's significance is entirely determined by the level of DSL signal you are having to deal with. Clearly very few good volts received equals potential for trouble. The thing is, the noise received further away on the line will itself be attenuated as is the signal, if it is picked up not near the house, on the other hand, noise inside the house is the absolute worst thing in the world in two respects:  it itself is not attenuated, and it is being compared with the dsl signal at its weakest. I don't know how much difference a metal case might make, but sticking kit in a biscuit tin temporarily might be an interesting test, ought to ground the tin too. If it is going to make a difference anywhere it will be to me with my lovely 67 dB downstream attenuation.

@sevenlayermuddle - I wonder if there is a device that can kill the power to a socket based on smoke detection and a temperature or infra-red alarm? Having had a terrible house fire some years ago, as has a good friend of mine recently, and I have also have had a washing machine catching fire too, it's a subject dear too my heart, and it's not something you want to have in your life.