• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    13
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Read the title and went: What? They want you to keep your network hardware ON, when unattended, to increase the undetected malware entry opportunities?

    Turns out it as their own devices they wanted to push updates to.

    I would really prefer to use my own device though and even better, configure it myself after learning how the ISP’s network works. But convenience is what it is.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      192 months ago

      The malware argument is a bit weak, if your router is vulnerable to something it’ll likely be found and pwnd in a matter of minutes, so turning it off a night won’t really save you. And once a patch is released, it’ll be reverse engineered in a few hours/days, so ideally you want patches as soon as they are released.

      Using your own device is usually a good idea anyway, telco stuff is usually pretty mediocre. And as soon as your device is slightly custom, it becomes a less valuable target.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        62 months ago

        The malware argument is a bit weak

        It’s much more than just a bit weak, unless you are somehow continuously monitoring it, so yeah, in most end-user scenarios, it would hardly make a difference to keep it on, even if there were no updates.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      112 months ago

      Yep, after moving from Germany to the UK I was pretty surprised that in the UK you’re not supposed to get this kind of information from your ISP.

      In Germany you can get your own DSL/cable/fibre modem and your ISP has to give you the necessary information to get these devices into their network.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        8
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        you’re not supposed to get this kind of information from your ISP

        Wait, do you mean, it’s illegal to ask for it?
        In my case, it just depends upon the ISP’s policy.

        In fact, with the current ISP, even though they provide their on modem (copper line), it has a pure bridge mode available, which I can connect to my other router and have fun looking at those packets with full transparency and the tech even went ahead and explained to me what I messed up, before resetting the modem for me, when I did use the bridge mode.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          122 months ago

          Not illegal, but the ISPs are seemingly under no obligation to give you those details. In Germany, there’s the “freedom of routers” embedded in the telco law. So they HAVE to give you everything you need to get your custom router online via their wire/fibre.

          Bridge mode is just using the ISPs router and bridge that into your router. It’s not the same - you still need the ISP’s access device instead of just yours.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            42 months ago

            Not illegal, but the ISPs are seemingly under no obligation to give you those details. In Germany, there’s the “freedom of routers” embedded in the telco law. So they HAVE to give you everything you need to get your custom router online via their wire/fibre.

            OIC, so, same as here. Germany seems to be having pretty well made laws in these cases.

            Bridge mode is just using the ISPs router and bridge that into your router. It’s not the same - you still need the ISP’s access device instead of just yours.

            Except that it is a layer 2 bridge and I couldn’t connect to the network directly, either way, because their line is copper [1] and consumer routers/modems are usually RJ45/RJ11.


            1. ↩︎

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                02 months ago

                I feel like we can do the same in other places too.
                It just doesn’t make much sense for me to buy one of those, considering I don’t expect to be using a copper endpoint anywhere else I go.
                I probably will get my own Fiber modem when viable (as in, I get a provider that doesn’t force their own modem on me).

                The major Fibre player here, requires use of their modem, of which, even the WiFi password can only be changed using their Android app. Said app connects to the internet and most probably tells their systems the new password to change to (which would of course, be in plain text), which then remotely changes the WiFi password.
                Most probably, other major ones do the same.

                There are some smaller players (probably Tier2/3 ISPs), which would let us have our own modems after enough effort, so I’d probably go with one of those.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        52 months ago

        Most providers in the US allow it too. It’s great that Germany has it enshrined in law, but in practice it’s not the exception.

        • @cybersandwich
          link
          English
          32 months ago

          It’s been allowed everywhere I have ever lived in the US.

          The issues you’ll run into is they get all stupid about it if your service ever goes down. They’ll always blame your router/modem first. (Literally the entire neighborhood could be down and they’ll act like it’s something specific to your device). Sometimes they try to charge an install fee or a connection fee or other dumb shit.

          I think their are local laws that require them to allow byod too. It depends on your area though.

      • GreatAlbatross
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 months ago

        It’s only Virgin Media to my knowledge who does this.
        Most of the other providers are happy for you to use anything that works properly for VDSL or FTTP.

        Most FTTP providers fit an ONT that puts the connection back into an RJ45 ethernet connector.
        Then you connect to the provider using PPPOE. Anything past the ONT, you can do whatever you like.

    • @Im_old
      link
      English
      -42 months ago

      you don’t need to know how the ISP network works, you only need some networking concepts. Subnets/addressing and very basic routing (for a basic setup). You won’t even need firewall rules if you don’t host anything at your place (that needs to be accessed from outside)