Found Spyware on My New Router

[SactoDoug]

My old router was having problems. About every one to two weeks connections would slow down to a crawl and eventually stop all together. I had to power cycle it to get it back to normal. I got tired of doing this so I bought a new router.

I read some good reviews on the MSI GRAXE66 gaming router so I bought one. Out of the box it connected well, has a good WIFI range and good bandwidth.

The alarm bells went off when I went to turn on some of the advanced functionality. "Game Boost", Parental Controls, and "AI QoS" require you to agree to GT Booster's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. It is a doozy. Below is a link to the privacy policy.

By using those advanced features I would be allowing GT Booster to view any and all of my network traffic. They could then use the information they collected for marketing and sell it to 3rd parties. I hit the decline button.

https://www.gtbooster.com/legal/privacy

[ibanezfoo]

I never use the built in firmware for home routers. Install DDWRT or Tomato or something else and get better features.

[OlderThanDirt]

You could always review your logs, identify the traffic heading to the GT Booster IP addresses, then block them. I don't know the particular attributes of this router, buy I typically drop incoming requests and block outgoing traffic. Dropping incoming traffic is similar to them trying to access a router that is not turned on.

[SactoDoug]

I never use the built in firmware for home routers. Install DDWRT or Tomato or something else and get better features.

Thanks for the recommendation. I could not any alternative firmware for this router, likely because it is relatively new on the market. This is a great suggestion.

[SactoDoug]

You could always review your logs, identify the traffic heading to the GT Booster IP addresses, then block them. I don't know the particular attributes of this router, buy I typically drop incoming requests and block outgoing traffic. Dropping incoming traffic is similar to them trying to access a router that is not turned on.

Good idea. I'll check the logs. I did see on my PiHole logs that this router is constantly hitting Microsoft's online connection test site. That is something new that I have not see my other routers do.

[hermosabeach]

I never use the built in firmware for home routers. Install DDWRT or Tomato or something else and get better features.

Any links to references on ddwrt or tomato?

is it hard for a tech basic to figure out?

[ibanezfoo]

Any links to references on ddwrt or tomato?

is it hard for a tech basic to figure out?

It’s not difficult, generally, but it depends on your router. Some of them you just use the built in firmware update option and instead of pointing at the factory update file you point it at the alternative file. Some you have to use a firmware file to break it first, then load up the alternative firmware. I’ll see if I can find some vids. Tomato firmware has like 20 forks now.

Once the firmware is loaded it does pay off to have some networking knowledge but not critical as everything is documented pretty well these days.

[hermosabeach]

Thanks

im using a deco mesh system with 6 mesh nodes. Wondering how difficult it will be to install

[yellowsulphur]

Did a quick look and this router uses the Qualcomm IPQ6018 which is supported by OpenWrt. Just need to find a way around the MSI firmware.

[ibanezfoo]

Thanks

im using a deco mesh system with 6 mesh nodes. Wondering how difficult it will be to install

I don't think it works on those deco pucks. Generally its for normal routers.

Edit: Well, maybe so https://forum.openwrt.org/t/ipq4019-...o-m5/85061/138

[hermosabeach]

Thank you

[high_revs]

i have similar but it's a 3pk and i bought another 3 and turned them all into satellites. no dd-wrt for my version. wasn't there a tomato wrt? or something like that back in the day.

[BrokerB]

A bit depressing we have to do so much bull****, after paying for hardware/software to make them stop pimping our IP out. MF's

[ibanezfoo]

A bit depressing we have to do so much bull****, after paying for hardware/software to make them stop pimping our IP out. MF's

This what happens when the greedy elite sacks of crap buy out the nerds. I am an oldschool nerd and back in the day we would have never allowed this. It goes against everything we believe in. But money talks. Governmeny bullying talks too.