Belkin routers now shipping with defect

[BobK]

Thought this might interest those of you considering upgrading your Belkin router firmware or purchasing a new one.

I use D-link so it doesn't affect me.

It seems Belkin routers now default to re-directing you to an ad for their parental control software every eight hours, if you don't explicitly disable the feature when sent to the Belkin site.

From reading the comments at Slashdot, it seems it might also be possible for others to tap into and spoof re-direct you elsewhere.

You might want to read the slashdot thread if you're considering Belkin.

I'm not that knowledgeable about it myself, but at minimum it seems very rude to default to an ad for their product every eight hours, even when just upgrading firmware on an existing router. Could also interrupt important business communications.

I consider this a defect since I believe a router should only send you where you want to go.

 

[ShowMe]

I'm not that knowledgeable about it myself, but at minimum it seems very rude to default to an ad for their product every eight hours, even when just upgrading firmware on an existing router. Could also interrupt important business communications.

A router should never redirect anything that you don't specifically program it to redirect.

The fact that they've made "ON" the default setting for this is insane.

Thankfully I use Cisco routers and DLink hubs; the only thing of Belkin that I use is their Omniview switch.

 

[LFTKBS]

I wrote Belkin a note in response to their very first denial that this was in any way not the worst idea ever. They're kind of apologizing now but seem to think that this is a spam issue, when it's clearly that the hardware that is supposed to route things is hijacking those requests.

Either they're lying or dumb. Both are bad.