Cisco Responds to Automatic, Snooping Firmware Backlash

The snark at the end of the post is ridiculous.

Blog comments on any hot button issue are absolutely worthless. Not sure why that's even worthy of being posted.

So saying you take feedback "very seriously" then proceeding to not allow any = fine.

Pointing out how that's rather silly = ridiculous.

Glad we've got that straightened out.

Blog comments on a hot button issue are the antithesis of feedback.

Cisco has numerous feedback channels one can pursue.

While blog comment quality usually leaves something to be desired (this conversation a prime example), saying it's not feedback is complete nonsense.

It's just feedback that's public and in the case likely negative.

By your logic drew, the same can be said for your comment to this article.

It actually made me chuckle.
If you don't feel it's worthy what news topics have you submitted for review lately?

I'm not expecting customer satisfaction or Karl to change his posts by way of my posting here. There's a difference.

Edit: and I'd not exactly equate a blog post to a news article.

The simple answer is simply to stop buying Cisco/Linksys branded routers. Companies can only get away with doing things like this if people allow them to, though it never ceases to amaze me that the people that make up these companies can easily forget they are dealing with people and should treat them like they would like to be treated.

I think short term this a huge PR blunder but the sheeple will continue to buy their products unless this remains the big deal it is. This effectively turns your router into a PS3 and by that I mean you really don't own it. It's not yours to do with as you see fit unless you are FULLY aware of how to prevent them from totally mucking your router.

And what is to stop them from making the next gen router do this right out of the box where don't have a choice but to only use the 'cloud connect' stupidity?

This is a sad development from Cisco and I look forward to buying and recommending Asus and other manufacturers.

quote:

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...since it automatically upgraded them to a firmware that required they log into the cloud to conduct even rudimentary router changes.

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If your WAN is down you can't log into your router to see that your WAN is down? Seems a very stupid design to me.

Since you are an expert on this, do you work for Cisco? Are you a customer of Cisco on a daily bases? First of all I can tell you from experience that there feedback sucks. Not only don't they listen to there residential customers, they don't listen to there business customers either.

As far as providing numerous feedback channels, show me where they are? You mean like the worthless feedback emails a company sends you after you buy and register the product?

I'm pretty sure that the latest model of these routers are shipping with this new firmware.. So... then there's that...

I've decided, due to this single act by Cisco ... that I'll not be purchasing any more of their products ever again, and will not be recommending them to friends, family or acquaintances.

Why is everyone trying to sell physical products as a "services". Isn't this called leasing? I'll bet a paycheck that if they continue with this strategy, all new routers will be managed in the cloud and once most customers are in the cloud, they'll start charging a monthly fee. That's right -- a monthly fee to change your router's password!

What's next? When I want to start my car, it networks with the manufacturer (through my cell phone using my capped data plan; no cell phone with a data connection? ROTFLMAO) to make sure I've activated my car subscription, the monthly credit card charge was approved, I've serviced it at the dealer within the last 3,000 miles and my subscription allows me to operate the car within the given geographic region (like DVD B.S.).

If the monthly fee is $30 and the car is free, I guess I can live with that.

and what happens when someone figures out how to log into other peoples routers? It wont take long, and before long, someone can fuck with your router and never even have to be on your network. Some things need to remain off the cloud, and local hardware management(unless you need otherwise, which is fine, set up remote access, its there on most routers already) should stay local. It leaves less chance of someone getting on your network. And with the routers ability to track what your doing, it only leaves a matter of time before someone exploits it for personal gain(by siphoning the data, with credit card numbers ect...). I give it a month before its compromised and they are then issuing an "upgrade" that gives all the same functionality without the cloud interface.

You can log in to the router, but you will have very limited control over the router. Cisco severely cripples your control locally.

In order to modify such things as Guest Access and port forwarding or other advanced features, you must have internet access and log in to Cisco Connect Cloud. There is no opt-out. The privacy-invasive ToS was the icing on the cake.

This is really not new. When it comes to the residential routers from Linksys / Cisco this is part of many years bad decisions and sub par products. I have not purchased a Linksys router in years and even when I purchased the last one it was a WRT54GL that was running Tomato or DD-WRT, but never the stock Linksys firmware. I currently use a Netgear WNDR3800 and have been very happy with its performance and advance features.
As a side note the dismal performance and issues of the residential Linksys Cisco devices should not be confused with their enterprise routing and switching equipment which is and always has been regarded as the industry standard.

The new TOS allowing them to track my data is enough to say I'm never using, or recommending, any Cisco product again.

But yet the "Feedback channel" is available to you. Negative or otherwise.

What the idiots in Cisco's executive suite apparently don't understand is the fact that this kind of blatant Orwellian b.s. is NOT GOING TO FLY with the techies who VERY OFTEN are the buyers/recommenders of equipment for their companies/friends/customers. I can tell you right here and now, I *used* to be a big fan of Cisco, recommended them/wrote PR's for them for the last 20+ years in my day-jobs, but that ENDED with this over-the-top insanity.. Yeah, I know this is on their low-end residential products, but how long can it be before they *try* (notice I said *try*) this on their enterprise gear? WHEN that happens, the backlash you're seeing now will be tiny compared to the backlash at that time...

A company I'm consulting for needs a small business router, VPN, VOIP support and I was considering one of Ciscos Integrated Network products, but there's no chance in hell of that happening now..

The fact they locked comments on their blog tells me they *know* damned well how bad this crap is to their customers, and they just don't want to hear the "FU Cisco" comments...

I don't see how it's all that different if DSLR only accepts positive feedback.

This is better - at least the tracking part has been removed.

Thank you. I think I'll still hold on to my old WRT 54G with Tomato

I equate Cisco's action to me buying a telephone, plugging it in and "permitting" the manufacturer to "listen" to my calls. Site: »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ea ··· dropping

I recommend that any Cisco owner, simply call customer support and ask for a refund. Then go to the nearest computer store and buy a new router (any Netgear will do just fine).

Every vendor is out there racing to control everything plugged into your house. This is the network guys, the wireless guys, the cable companies, etc. They need to find revenue in no growth markets.

The wireless guys need to kill you on data, and smartphones.
The wireline guys want your home automation, your refrig, and anything else that can connect.
Cable guys are Mad Men, still in the 50-60's but they are emerging slowly.
Cisco wants to own the same and when they say free, they mean free until you are dependent upon it, and then they charge you dearly.

I work in IT, I see people fall into this trap daily and it's no different than a guy buying a $3m box or a $100 gateway.

It seems that there NEEDs to be some legislation to protect consumers because I'm sorry nobody can read the 40 pages TOS for every single item and make a decision. Even if Cisco doesn't farms and resell your data doesn't mean that the guy after Chambers won't. They will. Big Data is big $$$.

The telcos already listen in; it's part of "quality of service."

If they aren't proactive about this and remove that TOS and the software, they risk losing customers.

Privacy is a huge issue these days. Google's image has been tarnished a lot because of their privacy issues.

WTF. So if this service goes down, temporarily or permanently, the router configuration is severely crippled? So stupid.

Very necessary. Pretty obvious Cisco doesn't give a shit. 'Connect Cloud' for a router is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard. So stupid that they must know how stupid it is and are just hoping to pull one over on less informed customers.

My Synology NAS has apps and all sorts of fancy stuff that I mostly don't use. None of it requires that I login to some bullshit 'cloud' account that collects information.

Keep believing the above 'official' PR talking point from Cisco Corporate as you drink the kool-aid!