Vodafone router tech support access

Special Ops

Just had a tech support call with Vodafone,all very nice and polite and no problems. But as I was on the phone he was able to access my router and make changes to the system, in this case a wifi channel change.
After he call I got to thinking how he could do this. Do Vodafone have a back door into their routers?
If they do I'm a bit concerned as the router running my LAN which gives a lot of power to a remote person, and while I'm sure Vodafone would only use such a feature for good and efficient tech support, the existence of this is very troubling.
Am.i wrong, can someone fill me in?ðŸ˜႒

ED E

They're using TR069 Management. Their server holds a key that can handshake with the modems firmware and grant them login. This is standard and all ISPs can do it.

There's a certain level of trust required when connecting via an ISP. Unless you're pushing DNS through a VPN to elsewhere they can already see what domains you visit and any plaintext traffic is visible if they so wanted. A rogue employee could open a telnet/ssh session to your gateway and create persistent access for themselves but I doubt any call center staffer is going to know how or care to.

If you care about segmenting your LAN off you can bridge to your own device or debrand the HG658 with a generic firmware. Just remember next time you forget what you set your wifi PSK to they wont be much help.

Special Ops

wow, that covered all my concerns, thanks, router is on last legs so i ordered a new one, not from vodafone, so issue resolved. I'm ok with managing my own network and a new router means better toys to play with, vodafones's wasn't the best

ED E

It really lets them down for VDSL connections, replacing it was a good decision.

EDIT: if you're on an "eFibre" connection then just be careful that some non Huawei devices have had issues with G.Vectoring and thus have been slower.

Special Ops

went with this

ASUS DSL-AC68U AC1900 Modem Router

was not a lot of option for new modem

mass_debater

Special Ops wrote: »

went with this

ASUS DSL-AC68U AC1900 Modem Router

was not a lot of option for new modem

I'm not sure that supports vectoring

Special Ops

mass_debater wrote: »

I'm not sure that supports vectoring

Did check the spec sheet and restoring is on it

mass_debater

Special Ops wrote: »

Did check the spec sheet and restoring is on it

Yes but that does not mean it will perform well. There's been posts here about some modems not doing vectoring well and giving slower speeds than the stock modem.

Special Ops

mass_debater wrote: »

Yes but that does not mean it will perform well. There's been posts here about some modems not doing vectoring well and giving slower speeds than the stock modem.

So my backup is switching to eir, I'm off contract. Do you know if eir routers can be bridged?

mass_debater

Special Ops wrote: »

So my backup is switching to eir, I'm off contract. Do you know if eir routers can be bridged?

Yes they can, you don't need to change. I'm using a bridged Eir f2000 on Vodafone.

Special Ops

mass_debater wrote: »

Yes they can, you don't need to change. I'm using a bridged Eir f2000 on Vodafone.

I'll let you know how I get on

Special Ops

Special Ops wrote: »

I'll let you know how I get on

So got it installed and seems to to be going fine. 58 down 10 up. Had configuration setting already in for Vodafone. Needed to update the firmware and DSL took a bit of time to get sorted but all good now. Any problems I'll post here

mass_debater

Special Ops wrote: »

So got it installed and seems to to be going fine. 58 down 10 up. Had configuration setting already in for Vodafone. Needed to update the firmware and DSL took a bit of time to get sorted but all good now. Any problems I'll post here

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