Mesh Wi-Fi and Firewalls

edgedemon

edgedemon

edgedemon

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Joined
10 Oct 2005
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As a network engineer with 25yrs experience Im slightly shamefaced about this one.
18 months ago the rainforest were doing a deal with interest free credit so I jumped on it and bought the netgear orbi 6 system.
Coverage wise I can't complain, it has been absolutely brilliant. The bit that has me raging is the subscription based firewall. Maybe Im too used to dealing with enterprise products but it never occurred to me that something as basic as that would require a subscription.
I have options, I could use a raspberry PI as a FW but if there is another vendor out there who does mesh wifi and includes a FW that doesn't need a subscription, then please let me know and the orbi will be sold as soon as I have something else to replace it.
You can get around the subscription fees, as every time renewal comes up, I refuse and then the day after the subscription expires they always send an email with 75% off but it is the principle of the matter!

So OCUK, any half decent mesh wifi systems that include a FW as standard?
 
Personally I would just get a separate router/firewall and turn the mesh units into just a Mesh Wifi setup. In fact its what I have done. I use an Edgemax as my router/firewall and then 2 x Linksys Atlas Pro as APs.
 
pepp77 said:
Personally I would just get a separate router/firewall and turn the mesh units into just a Mesh Wifi setup. In fact its what I have done. I use an Edgemax as my router/firewall and then 2 x Linksys Atlas Pro as APs.
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That is a possible option, certainly cheaper then replacing the whole set up. Will have a think.
ChrisD. said:
UniFi. They do proper APs as well as mesh devices, the firewall is capable and it’s all subscription free with a fluid UI.
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This is also an option, and cheaper than I thought, will look into it more.
 
GregI said:
I'm pretty sure this firewall subscription is an extra called Armor that you don't actually need: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...ubscription-to-use-my-new-Netgear/m-p/2271524

You will still have a firewall that will do what it's supposed to do. You don't need to do anything.
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You are absolutely right, but the lack of configurability is shocking. Maybe I got too used to DD-WRT

To be fair I haven't looked to see if that has changed, I will have another look when I get in tonight as there has been plenty of FW upgrades since then, but I remember the first thing I did when the subscription expired the first time was to have a dig around to see what was possible.
 
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edgedemon said:
You are absolutely right, but the lack of configurability is shocking. Maybe I got too used to DD-WRT

To be fair I haven't looked to see if that has changed, I will have another look when I get in tonight as there has been plenty of FW upgrades since then, but I remember the first thing I did when the subscription expired the first time was to have a dig around to see what was possible.
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It might have gotten slightly better, hard to know e.g: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Or...to-set-and-manage-firewall-rules/td-p/2332391

"The base product has an Advanced feature called Block Services.which deals with the specific situation mentioned (allow LAN access but deny internet access to a specific device or devices)."

If you need more than that probably not. :D
 
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