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by wccrawford 1373 days ago
First off, I think this is awful of Cisco, and definitely harms their brand in my opinion. I already didn't think well of them for low-end stuff, though, so it's not like they could do much damage there.

However, this isn't killing the entire router. Just the VPN functionality. If you don't use that, there's no need to get rid of the router. Just make sure the VPN is disabled, as per the article.

If you do use the VPN, then you should either replace the router or implement the VPN differently. Second-hand, that router is still good for anyone that doesn't need a VPN.

When tech is moving fast, I can understand a short warranty, but I don't think routers are in that category. (Wifi routers are, but I've yet to have a Wifi router that could handle my residential usage of it anyhow. They always end up having problems. I've moved to having an access point separately from a router so at least it doesn't kill the whole network when it gets stupid.)
2 comments
twawaaay 1373 days ago
What do you mean "Tech is moving fast"? I am not asking for the routers to be equipped with new features support. Just the features it was shipped with to keep being usable.

One of the main reasons to buy these SMB routers over consumer grade devices is usable VPN support. A lot of those small companies use their routers only for Internet access in their offices plus router-based VPN for remote employee, support or admin access to intranet. In a lot of cases it is essentially the reason to choose these devices over anything else.

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pnutjam 1373 days ago
Yeah, and it's a bad reason. You can setup a dedicated VPN device with any old computer very easily. It's also way more flexible. I have a client with a linux host that acts as a fileserver and an ingress point for remote work. No VPN, they just tunnel over ssh to do RDP.
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pnutjam 1373 days ago
I had my own wifi device, but it took 2 to cover the house. The one I rent from xfinity covers the whole house with one and it's pretty rock solid, so I've stuck with that, although I put a 2nd router behind it with DNS ad filtering.
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