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Comment by bennyp101 | Hacker News Reader

None of my TPLink, Netgear, or ASUS routers have ever needed a cloud account - I guess this is a new/regional thing?

I use Mikrotik hAP2 (~£60/$80) - if you are comfortable with that sort of thing, otherwise I guess anything that supports OpenWRT as others have said.

Have you got examples of ones that need a cloud account? I'm intrigued now

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Yea I just bought a netgear router and it didn’t require a cloud account. It did push creating one very heavily during setup.

Also using net gear. I suspect the vast majority of users here are savvy enough to get around the cloud requirement but non-technical users likely would not have figured it out.

Just to confirm, you don't need the cloud account for entering management page right? The reviews I read on Amazon could be from people who are not technical enough so they fell for the cloud acc trap.

I have a R7800 and they used to have an app for Android and iOS they didn't need account. They later removed that app and made the router refuse connections to it in favor of the new app that does require an account.

That being said, if you don't want the app you don't need an account.

in California I see that the AT&T supplied DSL-modem/router requires sign in (stored in firmware configs), and takes over the DNS functions (details forthcoming). I am very concerned about future "required" hardware like this.. the excuses will be around security, but look at the history of economic incentives.

I guess this is a new/regional thing?

Only if there's no Amazon in your region.

Amazon eeros require an account.

Apple's Airports did, too, when those were still being made. Not directly, but you needed an App Store account to download the setup utility.

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