nanog mailing list archives

Re: Cisco Update


From: Sean Harlow <sean () seanharlow info>
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 12:26:15 -0400

On Jul 5, 2012, at 12:08, Hank Nussbacher wrote:

For those of us who have not kept up with every latest feature that Cisco rolls out across all its platforms, can 
someone explain this new service?  Is it like Windows update, where Cisco will auto-update your router s/w and 
thereby brick it?  If I don't register my router with Cisco, what do I lose?  I can't update it manually?

Long story short, the affected routers (newer "Cisco" [former Linksys] consumer products) received an automatic 
firmware update which basically disables the device's onboard web UI and forces you to use Cisco's "cloud" management 
system.  The biggest issue with this is that apparently it has some function, possibly for web filtering, which sends 
network traffic information of some sort to Cisco's service.  They also state that regardless of the auto-update 
setting a device may be updated anyways if Cisco says so.

One article I found says it affects the E2700, E3500, and E4500 models.



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