Firmware update SG4K100158 has broke some services including WhatsApp!

[Kevin_1]

Hi,

I have the same issues as others in that the recent, not published, update of my routers firmware has once again broken some services!

This is the third time over recent years that the firmware has been updated in the early hours of the morning and things do not work, the first time I had to have a new router sent out the second the firmware had to be downgraded!

I have seen that other people have had the same issue and one 'Work around' is to change the firewall to 'Medium' however that isnt going to work in my instance as I use the 'Custom' option and have a number of rules enabled for specific services.

Is there some other option/fix available for those of us that don't use the basic Low/Medium/High firewall configurations?

SAGECOM Fast 5364 router

Regards

Kevin

[Kevin_1]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the feedback but I'm still no further forward as Ive been using the Custom option for years without issue, it's only when the firmware is auto updated that things go wrong and once again after the last upgrade I have issues.

So for those of us who are not 'Normal' or 'Average' users and have a decent understanding of IT what are we supposed to do when we have dedicated rules configured in Custom and the firmware breaks a standard application, in this case WhatsApp?

Are we just expected to switch to medium and not be allowed to use our home services/applications/configurations because Talk Talk deem this so?

Regards

Kevin

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi,

just to add, Medium is the default setting for the firewall and this is what it is supposed to be set to. In a handful of cases, we have seen the firewall incorrectly set to high during the update process, and our teams are working to correct this for future updates.

When set correctly to medium, applications will work as expected, but if a customer sets this to high themselves, then some applications may be blocked. This is the correct behavior and to be expected.

I always do advise that any device, PC or Laptop etc should also have it's own firewall and other additional security software.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[KeithFrench]

I said that most people use medium, if you want to use custom, that is perfectly fine.

[Kevin_1]

Hi,

Ok for arguments sake I set the FW back to medium what happens with the Custom rules I have in place?

Will that not result in those rules no-longer being available and therefore I loose the functionality that was working fine before the upgrade just to get WhatsApp working again.

As mentioned in my original post this is the third time I have had issues when the firmware has been updated without my knowledge and it's very frustrating!!

If we should all be using Medium then why offer other options just lock it down and don't give people the ability to manage their own services!

Regards

Kevin

[KeithFrench]

The default Firewall level setting is Medium. So setting it back to Medium is hardly a workaround to this problem. You are just setting it back to where the vast majority of customers have it set to.

[Kevin_1]

Hi,

Thanks for the response but I believe that at least one person wants to run their firewall in High so any change to Medium to get past problems is a workaround in my book, however no my Custom rules still exist but WhatsApp doesn't currently work.

I have tried adding all the common WhatsApp ports for TCP and UDP access to my Custom rules however the result is still the same.

Regards

Kevin

[KeithFrench]

It is not a workaround changing the firewall to Medium at all, that is its correct setting. For some reason, currently under investigation, the upgrade process to V158 has changed a few router's firewall levels to High.

If you need to use Custom that is fair enough, has it stripped out the changes you made within Custom then?