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Comment by dole | Hacker News Reader

That's true, TP-Link isn't great about keeping their consumer product firmware secured or updated. ASUS isn't much better but when it comes to network gear, you kind of do get what you pay for.

Selling models close to EOL or trying to hold hardware makers responsible for firmware security has been an issue for decades.

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> That's true, TP-Link isn't great about keeping their consumer product firmware secured or updated. ASUS isn't much better but when it comes to network gear, you kind of do get what you pay for.

If this is actually the case then you should contact the FTC because Asus under an order to pay attention to security:

* https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2016/07/...

I have an Asus RT-AC68U that I bought ages ago that's still getting regular first-party firmware updates (plus the ones from Merlin). Currently using ISP-provided hardware, but given my past experience I'd definitely look at Asus as an option if I needed a new router.

I think it was argued that the reason TP-Link was singled out is because of their pattern of vulnerabilities across their entire product lines going back perhaps a decade(?). The same could probably be said of other brands as well though, if not, more.

* https://youtu.be/ZCdZaSu68Kk?si=C7qumnao_bfvGvUo&t=138

* https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=tp-link

I have an Asus RT-AC1200, released in 2019 that hasn't had a firmware update since 2021/05 which is the reason why I bought the TP-Link. I do see Asus has a Nov 2024 firmware for that RT-AC68U on their site.

As far as my TP-Link router, I think I remember it being stuck on a 2022/09 firmware until at least 2023/09, and I wound up flashing it with OpenWRT earlier this year.

The AC1200 series was originally released in 2015:

* https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/ASUS_RT-AC1200_series

The V2 seems to be exactly the same except for some minor chip revisions (e.g., -DAN vs -AN), perhaps due to OEM part availability.

OpenWRT also supports (supported?) the V2:

* https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac1200_v2

The RT-AC68U was released in 2013, but I realized that the AC1200 is the consumer tier below the AC68 and related series, so that explains the closer importance on better hardware, easier updating of firmware and development.

What is a good brand today? TP Link is abysmal and my NetGear Orbi is feature light without their subscription. Even then, their app is very buggy.

Google and Amazon are full of spyware. I feel I have nowhere to run!

It depends on your use, but generally anything that runs OpenWRT should be good. Fairly inexpensive GL.iNet GL-MT6000(Flint 2) seems pretty good for a decent price. Comes with a Chinese fork of OpenWRT but you should be able to easily flash upstream.

Another option is the recently released official OpenWRT One.

https://openwrt.org/toh/openwrt/one

I'm happy with my Mikrotik, but do expect to be reading their wiki/googling a fair bit while setting it up. It does come with quick set defaults to get a basic secure config up n running.

I do like that I can export my config as a script. Haven't had to reboot it yet, excluding firmware updates of course.

Mikrotik maybe? I don't know if they're any good but they have a statement on the bottom of the page indicating software updates to either end of product life or minimum of 5 years after purchase date.

Are there manufacturers that are consumer focused that are good about security and updates? Some of the ASUS models are not particularly cheap, raising the question of why not go with business oriented models.

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