Eeeew!

Yeah, it seems that some of the big players have hopped on the remote ransomware bandwagon when it comes to networking equipment.

I have a Netgate firebox here that required such when running their OS. I replaced with PFSense and now have a firewall worthy of the name: practically unhackable. I won’t say that it is completely unhackable simply because of the geek factor.

CISCO and others have been going to the subscription model for remote management of equipment for quite a while. However, I remember one of those plug meetings way back when that a statement was made: why allow a third party monopoly control of your organization? That was back in the days of MS vs. Linux (any flavor). Still holds true today and is even more important.

-Eric
From the Central Offices of the Technomage Guild, Security and infrastructure Dept.


On Jan 14, 2025, at 1:16 PM, Arun Khan via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:

I am considering buying a Cisco Meraki switch (MS225-24P-HW*) on eBay for my HomeLab use.

My understanding is that these devices need an annual subscription (ransomware) to manage them via a Cisco Cloudbase dashboard.
(They don't have a serial console unlike most network devices)


In case you have worked with Meraki switches, please share your experience (include model #s) and what kind of configuration is possible with the "local" UI.

* PoE on all ports!

--
Arun Khan
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list: PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss