LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
Print

Zeichick’s Take: Undesirable consequences of automatic firmware updates


By Alan Zeichick


 Alan Zeichick
Email
July 6, 2012 —  (Page 1 of 2)
Harmless kerfuffle? Abuse of corporate power? Enablement of Big Brother? No matter what you call it, Cisco’s recent firmware updates to its Linksys home routers is troubling.

According to a story published on ExtremeTech by Joel Hruska, “Cisco’s cloud vision: Mandatory, monetized, and killed at their discretion,” Cisco pushed out a firmware update to some models of its Linksys routers for homes and small businesses. One effect of the firmware update is to move administration of the routers from a local application to a service on Cisco’s Connect Cloud services.

This means that router owners must now sign up for Connect Cloud in order to manage their routers, but the terms of service for the cloud service give lots of power to Cisco.

Hrusksa’s story says that Cisco has changed the terms of service after a firestorm of customer complaints, but as of July 5, they contain lots of clauses about the type of traffic that you can use on your home network. It also says:

You agree that Cisco may suspend or terminate your access to the Service without notice if (a) Cisco suspects or determines that you have violated this Agreement, (b) Cisco determines that your actions cause Cisco to be in violation of any agreement or policy needed to run the Service or (c) Cisco is required to do so by any court or government authority in any country. You agree that Cisco will not be liable to you or to any third party for any suspension or termination of your access to the Service as a result of any threatened or actual violation of this Agreement.

Cisco may, upon such termination, deactivate or delete your account and any related data, information, and files, and bar any further access to such data, information, and files through use of the Service. Such action may include, among other things, accessing your data and/or discontinuing your use of the Service and any and all rights granted to you in connection with the Service without refund or compensation.

Note that if Cisco kicks you off Connect Cloud, you will not be able to administer your Linksys router.


Related Search Term(s): Cisco, firmware, Linksys

Pages 1 2 


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/36780
 
Most Read  Latest News  Resources
SAP unveils SAP HANA platform innovations for Big Data and spatial processing
Features include smart data access and expanded cloud deployment options
Alteryx raises $12 million to put Big Data analytics in the hands of all business analysts
Quest founder's firm, Toba Capital, selects Alteryx as its first analytics investment
Google I/O kicks off
Developers get new APIs and tools, and the Go language hits version 1.1
Jelastic launches new version of its Java and PHP hosting platform
Jelastic today announced the launch of a new version of its ultra-scalable cloud hosting platform
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter



Comments


07/08/2012 10:15:34 PM EST

Hi Alan, I wanted to ensure your readers knew that Cisco has taken multiple steps to address the issues you describe above since Joel Hruska wrote his story for ExtremeTech. In fact, Joel update his own story to reflect what Cisco has done. You can read it here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/132438-cisco-responds-to-unhappy-users-reboots-connect-cloud-restores-router-functionality For background, here is a comprehensive update from Cisco outlining the changes we have made to address our customers' concerns. http://blogs.cisco.com/home/update-answering-our-customers-questions-about-cisco-connect-cloud-2/ Best regards, David McCulloch Director, Corporate Communications Cisco

United StatesDavid McCulloch


close
NEXT ARTICLE
Free Software Foundation challenges Cisco in lawsuit
After years of negotiation failed to come up with a settlement, the Free Software Foundation has sued Cisco over GPL violations present in its Linksys line of products. This marks the first time that the FSF has sued a large corporation Read More...
 
 
 




News on Monday  more>>
Android Developer News  more>>
SharePoint Tech Report  more>>
Big Data TechReport  more>>

   
 
 

 


Download Current Issue
MAY 2013 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?