Just got this lovely new router for the home, and I didn't even realize it has available security coverage with Trend Micro. I already have my laptops and phones covered with antivirus protection, and just wondering whether there would be any conflicts with turning on the Trend Micro security.
There won't be because it doesn't require you to install any additional security software on your computer.
I just tried turning it on my ASUS AX88U router but the moment I did, the VPN Client that I had configured in my router stopped working so I had to reset the router back to defaults. Never gonna touch this again.
Just letting you guys know, turning on the protection collects and sends a LOT of personal data to Trend and Asus.
no conflicts they are two separate things its like having two AVs without conflict, in the web/network module, if 1 fails the other kicks in. I only wonder if you need to accept incoming packets from router in your local firewall on host. Some people on this forum say they don't see attacks on router but I can see from Intrusion Detection/Prevention logs that there are attacks attempts from time to time. Privacy is less important than security I think, depends on where you live and who you are, so enable Trend Micro thing its great for what it does, it even blocks Internet tout court if it sees suspicious traffic
My antivirus, Dr. Web Security Space, on a recent scan flagged a "modified system change" in the system idle process, so I believe I am going to disable the Trend Micro protection on the router. And I do worry about all the info being sent to ASUS and Trend as a person mentioned earlier.
The service on ASUS and TP-Link routers does nothing but send sites visited to a Trend Micro API to see if they're blacklisted, and in the case of parental controls, the category of the site visited. If you're comfortable with them knowing sites you visit (which is a thing that happens with just about any modern security software) then leave it on. If not, turn it off.
Do you know if they intercept DNS requests if router is set up as resolver or do they check specific IP addresses of connections attempts?
AFAIK, it has a local database and the ability to query Trend's API to see if a site is bad or violates parental controls (it's a RESTful API that gives all the metadata to the client when queried). A user could verify by setting their PC/Phone/tablet/whatever to use a particular DNS service (cloudflare or google are easy, since they both have their own address space and don't lease servers) and then visiting https://ipx.ac > test for leaks - it'll show who owns the servers that are completing DNS lookups.
of course, Merlin will just expand options and fix bugs, it adds new security options too, but you need to check versions by date , I make mistake sometimes that I install older firmware from Merlin while there is a newer one from Asus so what, this is typical for routers with "so-called AV", this is what host AV does 2, you can disable website scanning module, leave IDS/IPS on
Builds by RMerlin himself do. Your own builds won't (Asuswrt-Merlin firmware is open source, but people abused this to run the Trend Micro stuff on non-ASUS routers, which the software is not licensed for)
Well, no. There's a difference between scanning your data and actually harvesting it to resell. They are harvesting your data. The AV protection in a router is silly as compared to a traditional AV.
yes some AV harvest to resell, and TrendMicro does state it, so its not under the hood (you have to click yes to activate TrendMicro). I don't think its completely useless, it scans/harvests urls , it blocks malicious site if your host doesn't block it via web/phishing scanning with AV, but there are many browser addons that do that too, so its additional layer. It is not very useful, its a layer. I am not super happy they harvest data but they are indeed effective especially because of the IDS/IPS, that saved my skin on more than 1 occasion. I said its personal choice you don't have to follow
getting some random disconnection though , probably will sell this router and rely on ISP's, if you connect second router your connection is cut in half too so
