Sounds like netgear routers are now 100% confirmed to be compromised with backdoors instead of just being probable
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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Time to flash the old Netgear router with some open source firmware.
Yep, but unfortunately it's not always as straight forward as it may sound. Plus, with routers becoming more difficult to acquire, it'll only get harder and harder to pull off. But there's OpenWRT and dd-WRT that work with a pretty decent range of routers as well as ASUS Merlin for many ASUS routers. Then, if you want to get nerdy with it and build your own router from an old computer, there's OPNsense and pfSense. Eventually it'll come down to these two if the ban is longterm and you want any semblance of obfuscation online...
GL.iNet are flashable and come with their fork of OpenWRT out of the box. I run the latest regular OpenWRT on mine.
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Yes, OPNsense is excellent if you have a spare computer to run it. Then you can repurpose your consumer router as a WiFi access point. I still feel safer flashing the old WiFi router with open firmware before using it even as a WAP.
I tried getting into the nerdy side. I have an old PC with only one NIC, but apparently it needs two in order to bridge to a WiFi AP? That makes sense, but I don’t have an old PC with two NICs. Also, my NIC doesn’t support as much bandwidth as I have supplied anyhow. Sad times.
Edit: the desktop is old enough that the mobo doesn’t have the slots I need. Effectively, I have to get a new old burner PC. It’s an old ThinkCentre with a dvd player built in.
If it's a desktop PC you can buy a PCIe card with multiple Ethernet ports pretty cheap, especially if you buy used.
Well ya, you need at least two NICs to properly setup a firewall. Additionally, since NICs are the most crucial piece of hardware for routers and firewalls, it'll only be as good as the hardware it runs on. Older NICs lead to regular crashes and/or slow network speeds. So swapping the original NIC out and adding another is VERY typical when repurposing old PCs as a router. The most common options for NICs I've seen are the Intel I350-T2 and I350-T4. Ironically, they cost about as much as a decent router, but going this route actually puts you in control of your home network!
you need at least two NICs to properly setup a firewall.
I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but two (or more) VLANs on a single NIC would work fine too. This setup is usually referred to as "router on a stick"
I'm not sure about other OSes or Linux distros, but it's easy to add multiple VLANs on Debian. You load the 8021q kernel module, then add interfaces suffixed with the VLAN ID (e.g. if your NIC is ens3, you'd add ens3.10 to /etc/network/interfaces for VLAN 10). You'd also need to make sure the switch port is configured to allow VLAN10.
Older NICs lead to regular crashes and/or slow network speeds.
but the ones you're suggesting (I350-T2 and -T4) are 12 years old.
USB network cards are even cheaper than PCIE if you don't mind lower performance (if you don't have USB3 ports you're limited to theoretical 480Mbit)
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First winner of the Netgear Peace Prize to be announced shortly.
Made me snort with that one
There's a reason and the reason will likely be revealed to be kickbacks and payoffs.
Corruption is pretty obvious these days.
It may always have been, its just more obvious than before.
Yeah this. They're not trying to hide it anymore. Just 10 years ago corruption may have required journalistic effort to uncover, now the admin yokels shout it from the rooftops, hoping to "trigger the libs".
"Corruption" is the word you were looking for.
Yes, but that would take work.
This is tech journalism. If evidence connecting something can't be Googled in 30 seconds, it's just an area of speculation.
Two possible reasons:
They agreed to installation of American spyware, probably not limited to models sold in the US, or they paid their dues to Trump, and he called the FCC.
More likely one reason... a combination of both.
Spyware preinstalled. Has to be.
Well netgear has a stellar reputation for screwing up their firmware horribly so if they are involved in implementing the implant it absolutely will be noticed.
Alternatively, if it suddenly starts working, we know they aren't writing it.
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Gonna be really funny when it's revealed in 5 years that Netgear routers have a backdoor for the Chinese govt and the US okayed it because of the money the Trump admin got.
It's literally the type of corruption that was claimed China would do for the last 4 decades.
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ah so don't buy a netgear router because the US Government will be listening in/watching. got it.
Do you really think they weren't already?
Right, do we not remember PRISM? Edward Snowden is still living in exile in Russia.
They don't need to tap your router when they already tap the routes.
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It’s obvious: the reason is money
This tells me Netgear probably bent the knee and kissed the ring.
I get the aching feeling its because Netgear likely agreed to some backdoor shit, or to just funnel all user traffic to ICE
Netgear likely agreed to some backdoor shit
If that's how you win Trump's favor, count me out forever.
Extortion is one reason.
Is it because Netgear is a "US" company? Meaning they are on the US stock exchange, have corporate offices in the US, and manufacture everything in Asia?
This whole situation has made me realize that I need to get back on the OpenWRT train.
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