Every single consumer SOHO router is just a data mining security clusterfuck these days, brand is irrelevant. The only way to really get away from it is to run your own SBC or NUC with a wifi card and shit.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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Should we worry? About Trump's reciprocal tariffs which are going to plunge the world into the greatest recession since the 1930's, Trump breaking the post war Western alliance and making partner of Putin's Russa, or Trump dismantling of the Constitutional underpinnings of all American juris prudence? Oh, you're talking about some fucking router.
Oh but all the US hardware with spyware from the NSA/FBI is just fiiiiiiiiiine.
As always US wants the data, they just don't want anyone else to have it.
It's also a laugh for them to say "fuck you consumers you don't get to" when the federal government already fucking blew it with SolarWinds.
Personal opinion this is much ado about nothing. In other words this article is baseless fear-mongering.
Trump is a bigger national security concern than fucking TP-Link and no one in power is seriously talking about removing him.
His economic moves will devalue the US Dollar and put it at risk as a reserve currency. Who is gonna step in? China.
But boo hoo, we should ban TP-Link! What a fucking joke. If you're really "worried" about China, get rid of Trump yesterday.
Three separate government departments are investigating TP-Link, so someone either tipped the Fed off and you (and the public) know nothing, or this is simply a witch hunt.
Since I know for a fact I can't trust anyone commenting anywhere on the internet as a credible source, I'm hoping those departments who once were independent of the Executive control and free of Trump corruption and are now filled with human excrement yes-men MAGA regarded morons, i will hold my anger until we know more.
The best that they've got is that TP-Link is competitive on pricing. Oh no they're not bilking consumers and still make enough money to function, that must mean something shady is happening! Or maybe they're just a company who isn't all-in on ripping off consumers for overpriced tech gear?
Also, the argument that some models force you to log in, sure, if you're a technically un-inclined dingus. If you are technically inclined, literally nothing is stopping you from installing something like OpenWRT/DD-WRT/FreshTomato on your TP-Link router and bypassing the login requirement entirely by replacing the firmware with an open source variant (note: DD-WRT isn't actually fully open like OpenWRT and FreshTomato). The point being that their two major arguments for why TP-Link are dangerous are defeated pretty damn simply.
If I can avoid logging in by installing fresh firmware of my own, and the only other major argument they have is that they're selling at lower prices then competitors... well, that's pretty weak tea.
Which do you prefer FreshTomato or WRT ones?
I haven't tried FreshTomato, just know it exists. I used to roll DD-WRT but I've moved to OpenWRT because I prefer code that is auditable.
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Trump is a bigger national security concern than fucking TP-Link and no one in power is seriously talking about removing him.
There is an abstract ironic beauty to this.
To secure US networks, start by kicking Musk out of government systems.
Seriously, DOGE could be literally installing ransomware that kicks off if anyone tries to block them... They were hooking up random fucking servers right into secured government systems and were given write access at some of those government systems.
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