The IT Nerd

NETGEAR introduces the PR30SG, a Dual WAN Security Gateway with cloud-delivered security controlled from NETGEAR Insight. Insight, NETGEAR’s cloud-based management platform, already serves NETGEAR switches and access points. Now, small and midsize enterprises, distributed branch sites, and the managed service providers (MSPs) that support them, can run networking and security from a single console. Each PR30SG includes its first year of security, so sites are protected from the day they go live.

Networking and security have historically been bought separately: a router from one vendor, security from another, each with its own console and its own bill. For lean IT teams, that means they end up with a security stack they don’t have time to manage. For MSPs, it means more tools to reconcile at every customer site. NETGEAR has been closing that gap by building security into its routers and managing it all from Insight.

The PR30SG takes that approach to smaller sites at a lower price point, with the first year of security included. The same security layer is also available as a license for the PR60X, so existing PR60X sites can add it without replacing hardware or scheduling an onsite visit. “Lean IT teams and branch offices have usually had to choose between an inexpensive router and a security stack they don’t have the budget or staff to run,” said Iphie Chen, Director of Product Management Enterprise at NETGEAR. “The PR30SG gives them cloud-delivered security, managed in Insight alongside their switches and access points.”

One platform for every site

Managed through NETGEAR Insight, the PR30SG gives administrators one view of alerts, policies, traffic and device health across locations. New units can be provisioned remotely, so a business or MSP can bring a site online without sending a technician. For MSPs, Insight multi-tenant management lets technicians oversee multiple customer networks from a single dashboard. Insight also connects to the PSA and RMM tools MSPs already use, including ConnectWise, NinjaRMM, Datto and Autotask.

Key features include:

• Cloud-delivered security, first year included: web filtering keeps users away from malicious and restricted sites, and intrusion detection flags suspicious network behavior in real time. The license, powered by NETGEAR Exium, also covers SASE cloud security, which enforces access controls and firewall policies before traffic reaches the local network.
• Zero-touch provisioning through NETGEAR Insight: ship a PR30SG to a new office or client site, power it on, and it pulls its configuration from the cloud. No one has to travel to set it up.
• Dual WAN failover and load balancing: if one internet connection drops, the PR30SG switches to the backup automatically to keep applications and sites online. Both links can also share traffic.
• Dedicated 2.5G WAN port: when a site’s ISP moves to multi-gigabit service, the PR30SG keeps up without a hardware swap or truck roll.
• Modern VPNs built in: WireGuard and OpenVPN are supported natively alongside IPSec site-to-site and client-to-site VPN, with no third-party software or extra hardware per site.
• Fanless design: no fan and no noise, so the PR30SG fits on a reception desk or in a wiring closet.
• NDAA-compliant hardware: built in line with Section 889 requirements, so the PR30SG can deploy in healthcare, finance, education and government-adjacent environments where component origin matters.
• Support included: every unit includes 90 days of free 24/7 phone support plus limited lifetime 24/7 online chat support. An optional Overdrive plan adds a 2-hour response SLA. The PR30SG also carries a limited lifetime hardware warranty.

Connectivity Warehouse, a Dallas-area networking solutions provider serving offices, healthcare facilities, warehouses and multi-site organizations, tested the PR30SG during NETGEAR’s beta program.

Availability

The PR30SG is available at an MSRP of $349.99 from October 27, 2026 in North America and from November 5, 2026 in EMEA and APAC. The price includes NETGEAR Exium cloud security for the first year, NETGEAR Insight cloud management, and 90 days of free 24/7 phone support plus limited lifetime 24/7 online chat support. PR60X customers can add the same security layer with a new license; contact NETGEAR sales to purchase one.

NETGEAR will cover the PR30SG and its approach to network security for small and medium enterprises and MSPs in a live webinar, “The moat is full of phish: How modern security protects a business without walls,” on October 20. Register at https://netgear.zoom.us/webinar/register/4017897634093/WN_iKxpN8D9T7qWcwV1CKtoKQ.

NETGEAR today announced that Thomas-Krenn.AG and Connectivity Warehouse have become the world’s first partners to achieve APEX and APEX MSP certification, respectively, through the NETGEAR DRIVE Partner Success Program. For their customers, these certifications mean one thing above all: the engineering, sales, and service delivery capabilities of the team managing or installing their NETGEAR network have been independently verified before they ever arrive on site. 

When a network problem stops a production line, delays patient care, or takes down a multi-site organization, customers need answers fast. Whether they get them depends on whether their partner has the right skills in the room. NETGEAR introduced the DRIVE Partner Success Program in November 2025 to give customers a clear way to identify that expertise. Rather than recognizing partners for what they purchase, the program certifies them for what they can do: the engineers they have trained, the customer deployments they have validated, and the service practices they have implemented. 

Connectivity Warehouse — first APEX MSP partner 

For businesses that rely on a managed service provider to keep their network running, it’s important that the partner they choose will remain accountable even if something goes wrong six months after installation. APEX MSP is the DRIVE program’s highest tier, requiring partners to qualify three certified post-sales engineers and pass a live virtual audit of their IT service management practices, in addition to the engineering and sales certifications required for APEX. Connectivity Warehouse, a Dallas, Texas-area networking solutions provider serving offices, healthcare facilities, warehouses, and multi-site organizations, is the first partner worldwide to meet that standard. Its customers now have independently verified assurance that the team managing their NETGEAR infrastructure has been evaluated on service delivery, not just product knowledge. 

Thomas-Krenn.AG — first APEX partner 

Customers who work with Thomas-Krenn.AG to build server and storage infrastructure have historically needed separate expertise for the network connecting those systems. APEX certification changes that. Thomas-Krenn.AG, which has manufactured custom server and storage systems at its facility in Germany since 2002, has now certified its engineers and sales staff on NETGEAR infrastructure, meeting every APEX requirement including validated customer success stories. The businesses it serves in the defense, industrial, data center, and public sectors can now work with a single team qualified to design, deploy, and support both the server platform and the NETGEAR switching infrastructure that connects it. 

Further information about the NETGEAR DRIVE Partner Success Program is available at www.netgear.com/drive 

Router maker Netgear has posted an advisory that users of a pair of their routers should update the firmware of their routers ASAP to mitigate two flaws. The first one goes something like this:

NETGEAR has released fixes for a stored cross site scripting security vulnerability on the following product models:

• XR1000 fixed in firmware version 1.0.0.72

NETGEAR strongly recommends that you download the latest firmware as soon as possible.

And the second one goes something like this:

NETGEAR has released fixes for an authentication bypass security vulnerability on the following product models:

• CAX30 fixed in firmware version 2.2.2.2

NETGEAR strongly recommends that you download the latest firmware as soon as possible.

What’s interesting is that both of these documents also say this:

NETGEAR is not responsible for any consequences that could have been avoided by following the recommendations in this notification.

That says to me that these vulnerabilities are serious, and are likely being exploited. Thus if you have either of these routers, it’s time to update them.

Things seem to be evolving when it comes to the over 70 Netgear routers that are affected by a remote takeover flaw. An issue that Netgear has known about since the start of the year. But didn’t seem to do anything about until the issue became public. Which is one of the reasons why I recommended that you pull the router from service and get something else.

Now, if you want to keep your Netgear router in place rather than replace it with a more secure option from another vendor, I would direct you towards this page on the Netgear support site which seems to be updated on a semi-frequent basis with new router firmware. At last count, I saw new firmware for 8 of their routers. That’s up from two from yesterday. Keep in mind that over 70 routers are affected by this issue. Thus this while showing that they are trying to do something about this epic security #fail, it’s a drop in the bucket relative to the scale of the overall problem. But having said that, if you’re router has updated firmware available, you should install that firmware now. As in right the hell now. Because I guarantee that with exploit code and scanning tools being available, the bad guys are looking for your router to do something evil to it.

I’ll also note something else. On the “Workarounds” section of this page, it says this:

Turning off Remote Management on your router or gateway web user interface significantly reduces your risk of exposure to these vulnerabilities. Remote Management on your router or gateway’s web user interface is turned off by default. If you never enabled Remote Management, you do not need to take any action to turn off Remote Management.

You’ll note the words “significantly reduces your risk of exposure to these vulnerabilities.” It doesn’t say that it eliminates the risk. Which means that even if you do what Netgear suggests, it will only make your network safer, but not safe. Which is why by the weekend, my Netgear router will be off my network and replaced by something else.

There’s another question here that needs to be answered. This story has been out there for a day or two, and you’re seeing updated firmware appear very quickly. So that implies that they could have done this in January when they became aware of this issue. Thus the question is, why didn’t they take action then? Sure they could have been working on a fix between January and now. But if that were true, it should have been released to the public between January and now. Right? The cynic in me says that Netgear wasn’t interested in fixing this until it went public. But I am free to be proven wrong by Netgear. Seeing as they read my stuff, I challenge them to provide not only an answer for this, but please tell me and my readers why you should be trusted going forward.

So how about it Netgear?

Yesterday, I reported that Netgear has 79 different router models that are affected by a serious vulnerability that allows for the complete takeover of the router. That’s incredibly bad and far from trivial. But the thing is, we’re been here before. Netgear has a history of security issues in their products that date back many, many years. Let me cite some examples:

• In 2015 a flaw was discovered In Netgear Routers that exposed the admin password & more in an affected router
• At the end of 2016, Netgear had to roll out new router firmware to fix an (at the time) epic security issue where your router could be recruited into a botnet.
• Not long after that, another serious security hole in Netgear routers appeared that allowed a miscreant to change the settings of the router remotely.
• And not long after that flaw, yet another security flaw was found in Netgear routers that could allow a miscreant to get the admin password from a router.
• While not a security issue, Netgear router software had a critical bug that affected macOS and their response to it was shambolic.
• Not long after that, Netgear lost a pile of customer data that was stored on their cloud service.
• Oh, and here’s a good one. Netgear was caught collecting analytic data on the down low.
• And finally in late 2018, a similar issue to the one that was disclosed in the last few days appeared, and Netgear had to kick out firmware updates to address that in about 17 different routers.

Now that last incident was in 2018. and I thought that Netgear had cleaned up their act. But clearly not. Netgear has clearly not learned from their past mistakes. Instead, they repeat them.

Now one thing that I didn’t report was this fact that was pointed out by a reader:

That’s right. Netgear has known about this latest issue with their routers since January of this year. It’s currently late June, and they didn’t take action until these issues were made public. So that’s a complete #fail as it appears to the casual observer that Netgear wasn’t going to take action. And that as far as I am concerned is also the final nail in the coffin.

Netgear has basically proven that they cannot produce a router that will keep you secure. This is doubly important as we are all living in the age of everyone and their dog is working for home. As far as I am concerned, they don’t deserve a cent from you. Thus if you’re affected by their latest security issues, ditch their router right now and buy another brand of router to replace it. What brand of router should you buy? Well, anything is preferable to Netgear as I am not aware of another router brand that has the scale and history of security issues that Netgear does. Thus any other brand is an improvement over Netgear. And going forward, I would not have any Netgear product on your list for any new purchases. Nor will I recommend Netgear to my clients. In fact, I will be pulling my recommendation of the R8500 because of this security fiasco.

If Netgear wants to rescue their image, they need to give a fulsome explanation in terms of how they are going to ensure that users of their products are going to be secure going forward. And they need to bring in a third party to not only audit everything from a security standpoint in that company, but to also make sure that they aren’t just talking the talk, but they are walking the walk 100% of the time. If they want a template to work from, they should look at what Zoom is doing and copy that.

To be frank, I don’t expect Netgear to do this. The fact is, if they were the least bit serious about keeping their users safe, they would have done some or all of this already. And we wouldn’t be here talking about their security issues today. Thus let me restate my recommendation. If you have Netgear equipment, ditch it ASAP. Because they simply do not deserve your hard earned money. Plain and simple.

UPDATE: Netgear has begun to roll out fixes for this fiasco. More details here.

Netgear has a massive problem on its hands. There is an unpatched zero-day vulnerability exists in 79 Netgear router models that allow an attacker to take full control over vulnerable devices remotely. That makes this a non-trivial issue. Especially in this day and age as most of us are working from home. This was discovered by Adam Nichols of cybersecurity firm Grimm and d4rkn3ss from Vietnam’s VNPT ISC (through Zero Day Initiative). Now Nichols has released a detailed explanation of the vulnerability, a PoC exploit, and scripts to find vulnerable routers. Which means that the bad guys will be using these tools to launch attacks. In fact, it’s a safe bet that this is already happening

Here’s the list of routers that are affected by this exploit:

AC1450
D6220
D6300
D6400
D7000v2
D8500
DC112A
DGN2200
DGN2200v4
DGN2200M
DGND3700
EX3700
EX3800
EX3920
EX6000
EX6100
EX6120
EX6130
EX6150
EX6200
EX6920
EX7000
LG2200D
MBM621
MBR624GU
MBR1200
MBR1515
MBR1516
MBRN3000
MVBR1210C
R4500
R6200
R6200v2
R6250
R6300
R6300v2
R6400
R6400v2
R6700
R6700v3
R6900
R6900P
R7000
R7000P
R7100LG
R7300
R7850
R7900
R8000
R8300
R8500
RS400
WGR614v8
WGR614v9
WGR614v10
WGT624v4
WN2500RP
WN2500RPv2
WN3000RP
WN3100RP
WN3500RP
WNCE3001
WNDR3300
WNDR3300v2
WNDR3400
WNDR3400v2
WNDR3400v3
WNDR3700v3
WNDR4000
WNDR4500
WNDR4500v2
WNR834Bv2
WNR1000v3
WNR2000v2
WNR3500
WNR3500v2
WNR3500L
WNR3500Lv2
XR300

What’s important to note is that I can find no mitigations for this exploit. None. That’ makes this exploit really dangerous. Also, Netgear isn’t planning on patching this entire list of routers that are affected by this. Which means that if you have any of these routers, you are on your own. Which of course is not a good situation. And really reflects poorly on Netgear as they should really not only have better security for their routers, but they should make much more of an effort to better care for their customer base when security issues arise.

Given the scale of the issues, and Netgear’s response to it, I would recommend that you take immediate action by replacing your Netgear router with something other brand of router from a vendor who considers security to be top of mind. That’s what I am doing as I have an R8500 which is on the list. And you should do the same thing. This is not a trivial exploit and it requires a non-trivial response in order to ensure that you are secure.

UPDATE: Thanks for everyone who alerted me that Netgear has just sent out emails to customers. In it it has a a security advisory that details this exploit. And the fact that only TWO of their routers have fixes for this exploit. Netgear says that they will “continue to work on hotfixes for the remaining vulnerabilities and models, which we will release on a rolling basis as they become available.” Whatever that means.

They also have a mitigation for this exploit which is turning off remote management. Here’s how you do it:

1. On a computer that is part of your home network, type http://www.routerlogin.net in the address bar of your browser and press Enter.
2. Enter your admin user name and password and click OK. If you never changed your user name and password after setting up your router, the user name is admin and the password is password.
3. Once you have logged in successfully, select the ADVANCED tab on the browser screen.
4. Click on Advanced Setup
5. Click on Remote Management.
   Note: on some products you may need to click on Web Services Management instead
6. If the check box for Turn Remote Management On is checked, click on it so that the box is unchecked. Then click Apply to save your changes. 
7. If the check box for Turn Remote Management On is unchecked, then click Cancel to leave the page as Remote Management is already turned off.

UPDATE #2: Netgear saw my story and sent me this this tweet:

UPDATE #3: Netgear has begun to roll out fixes for this fiasco. More details here.

If you’re using a Netgear router at home, you might want to check for a firmware update because a bunch of firmware updates have been released to fix some remote access vulnerabilities.

The flaws were found by Martin Rakhmanov of Trustwave and confirmed by Netgear. Apparently 17 routers have a remote authentication bypass flaw which allows someone to reach the web based configuration interface and gain control without using a password. From there, a bad guy can pwn the network. What’s worse is that another 17 Netgear routers have a similar bug. Finally, six other models have an issue with Wi-Fi Protected Setup which when you press the WPS button opens up a two-minute window during which an attacker can potentially execute arbitrary code on the router as root over the air.

My advice for owners of Netgear routers is to check for updates and update now. That way that you can avoid pwnage now that these flaws are public.

I am not sure what Netgear was thinking when they came up with this idea, but if you own a NightHawk R7000 router from the company and you have updated the firmware to said router in the last little while, it’s now collecting the following info by default and sending it back to Netgear:

• Total number of devices connected to the router
• IP address
• MAC addresses
• Serial number
• Router’s running status
• Types of connections
• LAN/WAN status
• Wi-Fi bands and channels
• Technical details about the use and functioning of the router and the WiFi network

Netgear had this on its website as to why it is doing this:

Technical data about the functioning and use of our routers and their WiFi network can help us to more quickly isolate and debug general technical issues, improve router features and functionality, and improve the performance and usability of our routers

Here’s the problem with that. If you want to collect data, allow one to opt into this. Forcing one to opt out should never be how this sort of thing should work as it just leaves a very bad taste in ones mouth as a result. Now if you don’t want Netgear collecting info on you, here’s how you disable this “feature”:

• Launch a web browser from your PC or smartphone that is connected to the network.
• Open the router login window by entering http://www.routerlogin.net.
• Type the router username and password. If you haven’t changed the default settings, your username is admin, and password is password.
• Select Advanced → Administration → Router Update on the Home page.
• Scroll down to the Router Analytics Data Collection section and select the Disable button to disable router analytics data collections.
• Click the Apply button to save your settings.

Now this “feature” is likely to come to other Netgear routers. So if you own one, you should be on the lookout for this “feature” and take action if required to protect your privacy.