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Huawei AX3 WS7200-20 Review – Warning contains security flaws

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I recently purchased a https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/routers/ax3-mesh-kit/ to setup a wifi mesh network at home and thought I would write about a major flaw the software has.

I have a Virgin 3 Hub in modem mode connected to an Asus router. The asus has wifi disabled and a single Huawei connected to it. The AX3 is in AP (Access Point) mode with dhcp disabled and wifi configured i.e ssid top_home and a suitable passphrase. When connecting to this wifi SSID everything works as expected i.e my laptop gets an IP address form my Asus router. So far so good.

The next stage was to add a second (slave) AX3 to create a mesh network. I set this up by performing a factory reset on the slave device and placing it within one meter of the master device and powering on. Once booted the slave device started flashing orange at which point I pressed the “H” button on the master and after a couple of seconds the orange light change to green to show it had synced. Again all good so far.

When connected to the slave via ethernet from my laptop again I got an ip from the asus and was able to browse the internet and local network. After disconnecting the ethernet I then went on to test the mesh. On opening available networks in windows 10 I saw a new network i.e HUAWEI_XXXX with status OPEN i.e no encryption upon connecting to that with no passphrase I found myself connected to my local network in the same way as I had before via a wired connection. I tried a lot of resets and syncing the master and slave via a wired connection but the end result was the same. After some online discussions I found out that these devices DO NOT support mesh while in Access Point mode, it does when you have the master in router mode i.e if i had to connected straight to my Virgin 3 Hub but rather than it not working at all in AP mode what it does is still allows access to you local network and the internet but via an UNSECURE SSID.

People with little or no networking knowledge may not realise this as they would rightly connect to the ssid they created i.e top_home and think nothing more of it but in reality they are connecting to the master device only and not part of any mesh and the slave device is sitting there in ignorant unsecure bliss.

I contacted Huawei support and I can safely say it was the worst I have experienced form any company EVER.

Here are some of the frankly laughable replies I received
For this type of issue, I advise you to contact your network provider.

Unfortunately sir we don’t offer such complex technical troubleshooting so in regards with your inquiry in regards with the AX3 I would recommend you to contact your internet provider for further assistance as the connectivity issues are usually from their side.

I asked them a very direct question “Does the AX3 support mesh when the primary device is in Access Point mode?” and all they did was reply with marketing speel saying the devices were “mesh ready”

After becoming totally fed up I decided to contact sales for an RMA and was told “We don’t accept returns after 14 days”

So i’m left with 3 door stops and I do question their ability to perform even this function to any satisfaction.

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Star Trek Dis Gon Be Gud Gif

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So over the years i’ve seen a few “dis gon be gud” gifs i.e the ones with guys opening folding chairs well I was watching an episode of Start Trek The Next Generation and a scene popped up that would be perfect for this so I decided to make one.

startrek-disgonbgood

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Adding/Enabling rc.local in Debian 9 Stretch & 10 Buster

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On recent releases of debian rc.local is deprecated, ideally you should create a system service for whatever it is you want to do but i’ve always used rc.local for odd one line commands. Running the commands below will re-add the rc.local functionality

****RUN AS ROOT OR PREFIX WITH SUDO****

COPY AND PASTE EACH BLOCK OF CODE IE NOT LINE BY LINE

Create service file

echo '[Unit]
Description=/etc/rc.local
ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start
TimeoutSec=0
StandardOutput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes
SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target' > /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

Create rc.local file

echo '#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other # value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

exit 0' > /etc/rc.local

Set file permissions
chmod +x /etc/rc.local

Enable rc.local service so it works at boot time
systemctl enable rc-local

Start the service
systemctl start rc-local

Check service stats
systemctl status rc-local

● rc-local.service – /etc/rc.local Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service.d └─debian.conf Active: active (exited) since Mon 2021-08-23 09:17:15 BST; 4s ago Process: 6426 ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Aug 23 09:17:15 VIG690M systemd[1]: Starting /etc/rc.local… Aug 23 09:17:15 VIG690M systemd[1]: Started /etc/rc.local.

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bluetooth hci0: firmware: failed to load brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd (-2)

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After inserting my Plugable USB Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Micro Adapter (Compatible with Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Raspberry Pi, Linux Compatible, Classic Bluetooth, and Stereo Headset Compatible) device into my debian 9 box I got the following error.

Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.707975] usb 1-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.819878] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=21e8, bcdDevice= 1.12
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.819882] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.819885] usb 1-1.1: Product: BCM20702A0
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.819887] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.819889] usb 1-1.1: SerialNumber: 5CF3707E6B94
Dec 21 13:02:38 box systemd[1]: Listening on Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status /dev/rfkill Watch.
Dec 21 13:02:38 box kernel: [68069.870056] alg: No test for fips(ansi_cprng) (fips_ansi_cprng)
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954326] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954355] NET: Registered protocol family 31
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954357] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954363] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954367] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.954378] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
Dec 21 13:02:39 box systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status…
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68069.972557] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
Dec 21 13:02:39 box systemd[1]: Reached target Bluetooth.
Dec 21 13:02:39 box systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.090051] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: chip id 63
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.091049] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: features 0x07
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.107057] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.108081] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.108588] bluetooth hci0: firmware: failed to load brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd (-2)
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.110491] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for information about missing firmware
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.112427] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd failed with error -2
Dec 21 13:02:39 box kernel: [68070.112437] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: Patch brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd not found

I fixed this by….
1, unplug bluetooth usb
cd /opt
wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/plugable/bin/fw-0a5c_21e8.hcd
mv fw-0a5c_21e8.hcd /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM20702A0-0a5c-21e8.hcd
cp /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM20702A0-0a5c-21e8.hcd /lib/firmware/brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd

re-insert usb bluetooth device

Dec 21 13:05:35 box kernel: [68246.127075] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 6
Dec 21 13:05:35 box systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status…
Dec 21 13:05:35 box systemd[1]: bluetooth.target: Unit not needed anymore. Stopping.
Dec 21 13:05:35 box systemd[1]: Stopped target Bluetooth.
Dec 21 13:05:35 box systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.379974] usb 1-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
Dec 21 13:05:47 box systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status…
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.491959] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=21e8, bcdDevice= 1.12
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.491963] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.491966] usb 1-1.1: Product: BCM20702A0
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.491968] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.491970] usb 1-1.1: SerialNumber: 5CF3707E6B94
Dec 21 13:05:47 box systemd[1]: Reached target Bluetooth.
Dec 21 13:05:47 box systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.602129] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: chip id 63
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.603126] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: features 0x07
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.619133] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.620132] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000
Dec 21 13:05:47 box kernel: [68258.620232] bluetooth hci0: firmware: direct-loading firmware brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd
Dec 21 13:05:48 box kernel: [68259.474137] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 1338
Dec 21 13:05:48 box kernel: [68259.490136] Bluetooth: hci0: Broadcom Bluetooth Device

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