"Rix" wrote in message
...
I hope this is an appropriate place to post this information.

It seems that several Netgear router models have a flaw which has caused
an
unintended denial of service attack on the University of Wisconsin. You
can read details he http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~plonka/netgear-sntp/

It is estimated that there are 700,000 affected routers, of various
models,
out there worldwide.

If you are using a Netgear router please update your firmware to the most
recent version. The Netgear product support download pages begin he
http://www.netgear.com/support/dnld_main.asp

Not only is this flaw causing problems for the University of Wisconsin but
it must also be using bandwidth across the entire internet, so it is in
our
interests to cap off this traffic as well as being good neighbours on the
internet.

You can also help by distributing knowledge of this flaw elsewhere, in
discussion forums, newsgroups, chatrooms etc. If you know of anybody who
uses a netgear router product you may consider mentioning the flaw.
--


What is the latest firmware? If you mean 4.9RC1 then fine i'll use it. If
you mean downgrade to 4.8 or lower forget it. 4.9 is the only firmware ive
tried where the router is usable. Below that too many crashes and
disconnects.

I still find it incredible that Netgear havent put a simple fix such as
manual entry of the sntp server or ability to disable in the configuration
settings.



--
---
Regards,
Richard Whitcombe
* Dont support terrorism - boycott America ! *

I know it's on only the Netgear France site!

I still find it incredible that Netgear havent put a simple fix such as
manual entry of the sntp server or ability to disable in the
configuration settings.

Please explain further - because I have one - and I'd like to understand
it as much as possible.


Nothing technical. Simply that it wouldnt take netgear much work to allow
people to manually enter a sntp server of their choosing and give the option
to disable the service. Having 1 server hardcoded with no user way of
disabling or changing is lunacy. Didnt the suspect that having 500,000
routers all contacting the same server would cause it problems !

I still find it incredible that Netgear havent put a simple fix such as
manual entry of the sntp server or ability to disable in the
configuration settings.

Please explain further - because I have one - and I'd like to understand
it as much as possible.

Nothing technical. Simply that it wouldnt take netgear much work to allow
people to manually enter a sntp server of their choosing and give the option
to disable the service. Having 1 server hardcoded with no user way of
disabling or changing is lunacy. Didnt the suspect that having 500,000
routers all contacting the same server would cause it problems !

Ah - ISWYM - I started with 4.8 - so I never had time synchronisation
done by the router - and anyway mine has always been done by my Turnpike
mail client, which you can set up to use any time server.
--
Chris

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 01:54:08 +0100, "Richard Whitcombe"
wrote:

I still find it incredible that Netgear havent put a simple fix such as
manual entry of the sntp server or ability to disable in the
configuration settings.

Please explain further - because I have one - and I'd like to understand
it as much as possible.

Nothing technical. Simply that it wouldnt take netgear much work to allow
people to manually enter a sntp server of their choosing and give the option
to disable the service. Having 1 server hardcoded with no user way of
disabling or changing is lunacy. Didnt the suspect that having 500,000
routers all contacting the same server would cause it problems !

My understanding from reading Dave Plonka's document is that the
Netgear routers *do* have a way to select an NTP server, but even if
you do, it doesn't stop it also contacting the UW-Madison server. But
I don't have one to check, so maybe I've misread the document.

The whole thing smacks to me of some testing code that was put in
during development of the firmware and got left in by mistake.

Ah - ISWYM - I started with 4.8 - so I never had time synchronisation
done by the router - and anyway mine has always been done by my Turnpike
mail client, which you can set up to use any time server.

No not quite. I think prior to 4.8 the time synch on the router was
broken - it didnt work.


From 4.8 onwards they "fixed" it which results in the university server
getting hammered by requests.

Its not your software time synchronising, the router updates its internal
clock automatically via sntp and theres nothing you can do about it.

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 15:13:46 +0100, "Richard Whitcombe"
wrote:

My understanding from reading Dave Plonka's document is that the
Netgear routers *do* have a way to select an NTP server, but even if
you do, it doesn't stop it also contacting the UW-Madison server. But
I don't have one to check, so maybe I've misread the document.

My DG814 router its hard coded and i think the wireless adsl router is too.
You have no option to disable or alter the sntp settings.

My apologies. I've just revisited Dave Plonka's document and the bit I
thought I recalled reading isn't there. I can't for the life of me
think where I got the flawed impression I did. I'll put it down to
Monday Morning Syndrome.