Support for the Desktop
I'd like to have the ability to manage eero from a desktop. The phone apps were well thought out, and work well. However, having the ability to do this from my laptop/desktop would be very useful for me anyway. Either browser or (for me) a Windows 10 UWP would be awesome!
338 replies
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Thanks for the great discussion here, everyone!
At this time, we don't have plans to create a desktop admin portal, but I will share this feedback and interest with our team.
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Eero was designed to be used with the smartphone app. There are major security issues associated with desktop UI's for routers. In addition, Windows 10 is known to break the desktop interfaces used in most consumer and Enterprise model routers. Netgear, Linksys, DLink, and most other consumer router vendors are saying they will be ditching desktop interfaces for their networking gear in the next 6-12 months because of the above issues, and because most of their users are asking for smartphone access for ease of use.
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I'm pretty sure that the reason a lot of vendors are going with phone apps is more around the prevalence of phones, rather then security. Like you say, ease of use and access. Windows 10 doesn't "break" desktop interfaces. It's sandboxes framework enforces code to not go where it shouldn't be going. Essentially, a forcing function to write secure code.
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Microsoft has said that the sandboxing enforced in Windows 10, along with the same API's webcams and CC video system, are breaking the desktop interfaces when viewed via IE, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers. They're working with networking vendors to fix the issues.
The smartphone apps are considered more secure than desktop interfaces because the security flaws in the desktop interfaces don't exist in the smartphone apps; according to Netgear and DLink that's their primary reason for switching to smartphone apps only in the near future, not user convenience.
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And if you look at the smartphone apps for Netgear and DLink, there's nothing easy or convenient about them. Best way I can describe them is kludge.
I've been doing networking professionally more than 10 years, and router firmware by all the router companies (Cisco, Netgear, Libksys, DLink, etc) hasn't really been updated or secured in all that time.
Now Eero and Luma come out with mesh networking using all new cleaner modular more secure networking firmware with almost none of the vulnerabilities, and where the desktop interface now isn't just not needed, it literally breaks the overall functionality of the new devices.
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And just as an FYI, Microsoft has a Windows 10 build coming out in late 2017 early 2018 that blocks access to router desktop interfaces via the browser. Similar blocking is planned for Unix, Linux and Mac OSes. Microsoft is requiring router vendors to provide desktop apps for router configuration, apps that run only on the desktop just like on mobile devices.
Content aside
- Status Not planned
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