I think this is one of the awesome things about Google Wifi (aka: OnHub). It's fully managed from a phone app (via "the cloud"), so you get the authentication tied to your gmail account. It's also based on ChromeOs (chromebook OS), and follows a similar auto-update that Chromebooks get. So you are always running the latest firmware.
(There are obviously downsides to Google Wifi, my primary issue being that it doesn't have many of the advanced features that something like UniFi has. But for most people, it works well.).
I'm doing nothing illegal or unethical, nothing wrong. Nevertheless, I ran from Google asap due to that reason alone. Google represented a massive single point of failure to my digital life.
I now use separate products for just about everything I own. While it's not as convenient as Google, I feel far more secure.
Using Google with their famous lack of customer service to make purchases that I could conceivably need to put a chargeback on felt uncomfortably risky.
Tie my home internet connection to that? How do I know I won't get locked out of the cloud-integrated admin app? Why would I want it connected to anything Google?
The "one account everywhere" thing is convenient and great for their branding, but it's not great for my peace of mind.
What I’m more worried about is their “You violated the TOS. We can’t tell you how you violated the TOS. We can’t unban your account.” If you don’t know someone at Google, you’re out of luck.
Which isn't to say that home customers would have necessarily done better, but most people don't have random maintenance bring them down at random times.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/23/14722470/google-reset-onh...
As an aside, you can read the Google WiFi privacy details here: https://support.google.com/wifi/answer/6246642?hl=en
Give me local ssh and WebUI. No cloud, no phone apps.
Not that that has ever happened, of course.
I found aggravating that:
- I need a smart phone and install an app to set up and configure the router.
- I also like the effort of simplifying the router configuration but I found it is lacking an "advanced mode"
- why if the Internet is down, the internal network does not work at all?
Microsoft with Windows 10 uses machine learning to figure out when its most convenient for the user to update (latest Insider build has this function). Either way, Windows has come a long way from 9x randomly crashing and every other piece of software requiring a reboot.
https://blog.eero.com/mesh-trust-public-key-infrastructure-e...
Manual steps with the physical hardware, or even requiring a local wifi/ethernet connection, are always going to be more secure than an internet-accessible god mode.
They will also put it into bridge mode for you where none of that stuff applies.
I recommend to use a mnemonic password [1] and just print out the WiFi password (without using Google Cloud...) and use some adhesive tape to attach it on the bottom of the router. The downside is that someone who has physical access to the router can see the password within seconds. Someone's who's plumbing your drain or when you are on the toilet.
That they put it into bridge mode when you request is due to EU regulations where EU civilians have free choice of router.
Instead of a string of random letters and numbers, they should be a string of words.
It's frustrating to visit someone's home, and have to enter (on a phone keyboard, no less) some lengthy gibberish that they never bothered to change.
It is not like I am going to use it for my main email account.
"START HERE" followed by steps. Communication and comprehension is always a key battle of onboarding.
For that reason alone it’s best to have your own equipment not tied to the ISP, IMO. The ISP can already see all of my plaintext traffic, DNS requests, and MITM all my sessions if they wish. I’d rather not give them full access to my private network on top of that.
It's your network of course but it would be the first thing I'd turn off.