ASUS rolled out an update to its firmware (3.0.0.6.102_34791) that now requires users to be over the age of 16 and to send a slew of metrics and data back to ASUS. If you do not agree or do not check the box to verify you are 16y or older, you cannot use the router. At this time, I’m not sure if ASUS has meant to disable the router for anyone under 16 or if it’s a bug.
You can opt out at any time but lose access to a slew of features:
Please note that users are required to agree to share their information before using DDNS, Remote Connection (ASUS Router APP, Lyra APP. AiCloud, AiDisk), AiProtection, Traffic analyzer, Apps analyzer, Adaptive QoS, Game Boost and Web history. At any time, users can search the contents of the terms at this page or stop sharing their information with other parties by choosing Withdraw.
Moreover, ASUS disables automatic firmware updates and worse, all security upgrades unless you opt into the data sharing. Security upgrades perform the following:
Security upgrade incorporates security measures that continuously update its security file and scans to protect against malware, malicious scripts, and emerging threats in order to secure the router and ensure system stability. Some upgrades addressing important security issues or meeting legal/regulatory requirements will still be downloaded and installed automatically, even if “Security Upgrade” is turned off.
Edit: I have personally contacted their CEO’s office, but if others would like to voice their disapproval as well, here is a link: https://www.asus.com/us/support/article/787/
If I bought one of their routers and this came up, I would simply be returning it and giving the person at the counter a printout as to why. Sorry, but this router is not “suitable for purpose”. Look up that phrase and “merchantability”.
For the downvoters, in the US:
https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/what-is-the-warranty-of-merchantability.html
The implied warranty of merchantability guarantees that a product sold to you will work for its intended purposes. In other words, it means you can expect a toaster to toast your bread. If it doesn’t, you have legal protection against losing money on a product that doesn’t work.
If you bought the router expecting it to work as advertised, you may make a claim if it doesn’t. They would have to spell out ahead of time what the limitations and requirements are in order to avoid trouble.
You have no claim. The update does not disable the router and even if you opt out, the router itself still functions, except with a few additional features missing. Telemetry and data collection does not void a warranty. There is no claim here.
That would be for the legal system to decide. If you purchased it for a specific advertised feature, and that feature was disabled unless unspoken terms were agreed to, you would have a case.
Protecting your network from internet-bound threats is one of the most important jobs of a router, and that involves receiving security updates. Once your router no longer receives security updates, you should stop using it.
That depends on how the product is marketed. If the product has any of those disabled features on the box and doesn’t outright say you need to send them telemetry data to use it, then you could argue that you bought it for that feature and can’t use it.
For instance, maybe I want to use the VPN feature, so I bought a router that supports that. And now I’m locked out of that feature unless I agree to a miles long privacy policy and sharing my telemetry data.
Plus, the lack of security updates is, at best, extremely concerning. The firewall’s primary function is to act as a first line of defense against attacks coming in via WAN. They have locked those security updates behind the telemetry sharing, and therefore it can’t even be used as a proper firewall.
Agree. Straight back for refund. In Australia we can legally choose the manufacturer, or the retailer. I’d go straight to Asus, to give them the message directly.
I would rather not have less options in this world and force companies not to be dicks. I guess to each their own. My router is also 2y old so no returns available.
openwrt is pretty nice
Unfortunately, lots of ASUS routers (especially the “gamer” oriented ones) use Broadcom chipsets. Broadcom support is severely lacking, (because Broadcom has refused to allow open source drivers) so in many cases switching to openwrt will severely cripple the router. Even basic shit like WiFi will stop working, because there isn’t a WiFi driver available.
Fresh tomato does Broadcom.
this is dissapointing. the enshitification of asus in general has been dissapointing…
Asus would do good in hiring a real lawyer. Parents accept, kid uses router, data collected of child, illegal. So easy to rip them a new one.
Top level comment to remind the Open WRT fanboys that this ASUS router uses a Broadcom chipset, which is not supported on OpenWRT. Been seeing it recommended by a lot of replies to comments when it won’t be helpful in this case, since Broadcom chips don’t have open drivers
However, freshtomato is another router firmware, that isn’t as feature rich or well supported as opwnwrt, but is focused on supporting broadcom chipsets.
https://wiki.freshtomato.org/doku.php/hardware_compatibility
I flashed it to my netgear router with a broadcom chipset, it works wonderfully!
Yeah I’ve stayed out of those because it’s just felt like a knee jerk without actually even reading anything. “Someone said something critical about a router firmware, quick put OpenWRT on blast!” 😏
Next DEFCON is in two months, can’t wait to see them get absolutely pwned.
Asus went the bad way. Check out louis rossman vídeos about asus, héroes one of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHQqKi9NcTs It is a company to be avoided. It went the non ethical way.
Every other company seems to charge for parental controls. It’s so stupid, I don’t need another fee just because I have a child in my life.
I wanted to degoogle, so I looked for a new router and ended up with an Asus.
It went the non ethical way.
Sadly, you can swap Asus with pretty much any popular company’s name and it still holds true.
Yes… But some more than others
Gamers nexus mentioned two decent brands (arctic and fractal) in their most recent video about Asus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYdtpU8FKO8 around the 11:11 mark
But yes, sadly most popular companies seem to be garbage nowadays.
I remember seeing that Openwrt is working on getting their own hardware sometime in the future. Might be worth looking at when the time comes. I’ll stick with merlin until that goes the same way.
never use stock router firmware
Any other open source alternative you recommend?
Usually it’s OpenWRT
openwrt
openwrt or ddwrt
Is Asus just asking to have a shitload of lawsuits?
It doesn’t seem like they give a shit. This is the company that strong armed NexusGaming with their repairs and have scammed a slew of people thru their warranty system.
If you search for “ASUS repair scam” they have a sorted history of this kind of douchery.
Watching the GN video was insane because I had that exact same experience with ASUS 10 years ago. Back when they made the Nexus 7. I had to RMA 3 of those dam things and each time I had to go through that song and dance with the RMA forms. I think when the 4th one failed I just gave up, recycled it, and moved on from this company as a whole.
Looks like nothing’s changed, which means this way of treating their customers is endemic at this point. They’re a lost cause.
My experience was similar, but I gave up after my first RMA because I saw everyone else going through the same thing. The N7 started as such a delight and ended up as one of worst product experiences.
That’s brutal that they get away with that crap. I will never buy anything ASUS branded again. They are on my embargo list now, right under Sony, which I haven’t purchased a single thing from them for about 18 years since they screwed me out of repairs on my phone. Only way IMO.
And in return Gamers Nexus is teaching all of their viewers what their consumer rights are, and how to report fraudulent activity to the proper regulatory authorities. This isn’t the first time Gamers Nexus has gotten regulatory agencies involved with computer part manufacturers fucking over customers, and the history of those incidents didn’t go very well for other companies involved.
On the other hand Gamers Nexus has also gone out of their way to point out companies that have done the right thing when issues came up, to make sure those companies are getting kudos for NOT fucking over consumers. Because sadly that’s all we really want.
If the FTC gets enough complaints to warrant the manpower to investigate ASUS warranty fraud, there is no doubt in my mind that they’re gonna be fucked based on what we’ve seen so far.
How many 14 year olds can afford a lawyer?
All you need is one lawyer in this case to handle the class action lawsuit that would follow. There is power in numbers.
A class action lawsuit with a related FTC warranty fraud investigation is a pretty tough thing to fight.
No need, they can just lie :)
Yes.
Give it a minute: Tech Jesus and his Nexus friends are having a great time with ASUS recently. I’m sincerely looking forward to how far they take things.
Who is this “Tech Jesus”?
Stephen Burke, Editor-in-Chief and founder of Gamers Nexus. They do computer hardware reviews, consumer advocacy and sometimes even investigative journalism. Steve has a majestic mane, earning him that nickname.
See https://gamersnexus.net/ and https://www.youtube.com/@GamersNexus
Ah, fair enough.
Okay ASUS is out. Recommendations?
There’s a few routes (pun intended) you could go.
DIY with opnsense on an old PC will give you the most flexibility and will allow you to build your router to your exact needs.
Ubiquiti is also another choice albeit a contentious one. Their hardware is pretty good which also doesn’t require a recurring charge to use (unfortunately rare when you get into the enterprise grade gear). The software side is where people have such mixed feelings as for consumers and prosumers it’s pretty good but when you start getting into enterprise level configurations you’ll find their software pretty lacking. For example if you need a L3 switch for inter VLAN routing you’ll want to go with a different vendor as ubiquiti’s L3 is practically broken.
You can also get a Celeron-based (for example with a N100) fanless mini-pc meant for use as DIY routers like these and install something like pfSense on it.
Personally my really old router still does what I need so I’m leaving it be, though I’ve replaced my media box and my NAS with a similar device running Lubuntu but can’t really make it also be the router since it only has 1 ethernet port.
And Ubiquiti’s support is non-existent. Don’t get me wrong, I like their hardware, and their software works just fine for my needs, especially at their price point. But if you have issues, you’re searching forums or are SOL.
Ruckus gear is pretty good too, though I don’t have much hands-on experience with it. And it’s expensive. Like really expensive.
I’ve actually never had any problems with their support the two times I had to RMA some dead products but maybe I’ve been lucky.
They’ll RMA just fine, but I was speaking more to software support.
Man, idk. I installed WRT Merlin in hopes this doesn’t make it there. OpenWRT is really hard to get onto routers. Even the ones that support it (which tend to be pretty dated) have a ton of hurdles or restrictions as manufacturers really don’t want to lose the telemetry.
Asus makes great hardware unfortunately. Some of the fastest and most performant routers out there. Moreover, they don’t rely on subscriptions to gate some of the features like pretty much every one else.
I tried TP Link and Netgear (if their “legendary” Nighthawk) and the Asus just blew them away on every level. Especially stability and reliability.
OpenWRT is really hard to get onto routers
I bought the Nanopi R4S, and it was extremely easy to switch out their modified OpenWRT for vanilla (literally just use a command/program to install the image on an SDcard). Granted, I did have to find a solution for wifi, but even that was easy with the Belkin RT3200s and the instructions (more in-depth, but still hand-holding). I also flashed it onto a Netgear AC1200 using nmrpflash, which sounds imposing, but really just entailed installing the pre-reqs, hooking the router’s ethernet port directly to my PC’s and running the command.
I did have to do my research to arrive at my decision to buy these specific models for their compatibility with OpenWRT. If you don’t, you might end up with something that requires popping open the shell and setting up serial comms, which is a pain.
As far as I could find, out of the three Wifi6 enabled Asus models (RT-AX###) that are compatible with OpenWRT, 2 require ssh and running commands that are given in the guide; the other one, and all of the supported AC### models, seemed to work using ASUS’s built-in web-app to upload the OWRT image. I wouldn’t say any of it is easy, but I also can’t agree with “really hard.”
Another consideration is setup and maintenance. Proprietary firmware tends toward being as “click here to set and forget everything, here are the only 3 pieces of info you need to know from now on”; OpenWRT is definitely more hands on and requires a lot of RTFMing and routine maintenance.
Something with OpenWRT. Turris Omnia is pretty good.
Synology seems ok to me.
All you need is Protectli with OPNsense and cheap TP-Link in AP mode.
I just write letters to the websites I interact with. I get a good deal on stamps.
I’m seeing a few comments suggesting OpenWRT, which is what I use and love: the correct response to this level of capitalist tomfoolery should absolutely be to 1. buy hardware that supports FOSS out of the box, or 2. install FOSS firmware.
BUT: OpenWRT isn’t for everyone. Installation on supported devices is usually pretty easy, but it does require being invested in setup, maintenance, and understanding of the software. There is little built-in handholding, and most setup beyond basic functions requires reading the docs and wiki; sometimes, some functionality requires running commands directly on the device rather than the LuCI web-interface.
This kind of understanding and investment should be the end-goal of all privacy-oriented tech users. Technology is complicated, and each layer of handholding that devs add also necessarily obfuscates behind-the-scenes functionality, which runs counter to privacy and security. That being said, the barrier for entry to privacy-respecting tech shouldn’t be “a masters in CompSci,” and thus any alternative to major tech brands is still a step up from just accepting what they give you. Just be aware that your current firmware may be a stepping stone towards software freedom, instead of a stopping point.
Fantastic. Time to deliver opnsense and/or pfsense to the masses. Or better, recycle a router with openwrt or similar
Because nobody has ever lied on one of these lol. Still criminally stupid of ASUS though.
They don’t care if you’re under 16. They have to ask if they want to collect and sell your data. This is a big red sign that says “WE’RE WATCHING EVERYTHING THAT GOES THROUGH YOUR NETWORK AND SELLING IT TO WHOEVER WILL PAY US!”
Yeah I don’t get why so many focus on “well, just lie and say you’re under 16.” Literally nothing to do with the state of affairs.
This isn’t pornhub buddy. This is a setting on a purchased product. Also, lying has nothing to do with collecting telemetry or forcing customers into it. You may want to realign your priorities.
