News Belkin apologises for mass router disconnections

and THIS is why you shouldn't use a central internet located heartbeat server for a home router...

Seriously, why does a home router need a central server to tell if it has connectivity to the internet rather than connecting to... um... the internet?

Would't the ISP DNS server be a better option to test connectivity?

It's like the "SimCity single player" of routers!

 

I was thinking the same thing as you ChaosDefinesOrder, but thought i must have missed a trick.
It seems such an obvious point of failure to rely on a single pre-defined heartbeat server that i thought i was just being dumb.

 

I have never heard of this before and I suspect many Belkin router owners are also not aware of it, I'm going to go all conspiracy theory now because frankly, it just smacks of another form of backdoor surveillance, why the hell would your router need to do a ping check with Belkin to confirm you are online?

I would like to hear Belkin's explanation of why they think this is necessary, it's previously been reported that some router manufactures have collaborated with the likes of the NSA to allow them backdoor access to their routers, not surprisingly, this is often dismissed as the usual conspiracy paranoia but nowadays, we should not be surprised at anything the 'security services' do in the name of security.

People have previously complained because some games require you to be online to play them and some hardware like, IIRC a gaming mouse required an internet connection, but routers, this is on another level

 

To our valued Customers

We require this functionality in order to analyse usage patterns in order to assist the lovely chaps in our r&d department to bring you even better products in the future.

Sincerely yours,
"Excuses department of router manufacturer of choice"

 

"The result: users world-wide found their internet connections disabled, despite everything at their end working fine."

"Those who did get through were told that there was no known solution, with Belkin announcing a work-around on its website... a few hours into the outage."

There's a hole in my internet, dear Liza, dear Liza. There's a hole in my internet, dear Liza, a hole.
Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it.
With what do I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza? With what do I fix it, dear Liza, with what?
The solution, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. The solution, dear Henry, dear Henry, the solution.
Where do I find it, dear Liza, dear Liza? Where do I find it, dear Liza, where?
On the website, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. On the website, dear Henry, dear Henry, on the website.
How do I access it, dear Liza, dear Liza? How do I access it, dear Liza, how?
Through the internet, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. Through the internet, dear Henry, dear Henry, the internet.
There's a hole in my internet, dear Liza, dear Liza. There's a hole in my internet, dear Liza, a hole.

 

I have never used a Belkin router that I liked. I don't encounter them often but when I do, there's something wrong with them. Twice I've encountered Belkin routers where the wifi "died" within a couple weeks. On one of them it couldn't retain connectivity, on the other it would remain connected but wouldn't transfer anything. On one of these routers, I tried installing DD-WRT, only to find that it couldn't fit on the router's 2MB flash.

For the record, neither of these routers were mine, and I didn't recommend them either.

 

I didn't think of that to start with, even more ridiculous.


You're all disconnected from the internet! And the only way to fix it is to look at our website.......on the internet!! MWAHAHAHA,

 

Same as notifying of email outages with email... Have seen this in many places.