Just happened to be running tcpdump, and i notice that my server is making a couple of UDP packets to "209.183.10.179" on port 7001. I believe this IP is in the NeoRouter server pool, so what is this communication?

Cheers,
Robin

Hi robina,

Yes. It's one of our servers providing services to NR Client. The port is used for detecting network.

Thanks,
KevinZ - NeoRouter team

In your WIKI you state:

-----8<-----
NeoRouter does not rely on a central server for connectivity, so you do not need to worry about the unexpected server maintenance and downtime.
-----8<-----

1) So now i am confused. If it doesn't rely on a central server, why is it contacting your server?

2) What does "the port is used for detecting network" mean?

3) What happens if i block this 7001 port, will NeoRouter stop working?

Cheers,
Robin

Any reply on this please?

Hi,

As a prospective business customer, one of the main features that attracted me to NeoRouter Professional was the self-hosting option.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing exactly the same behaviour as the previous poster - i.e. despite connecting our Windows clients directly to our self hosted NeoRouter Professional server via IP/hostname they are still all "calling home" to NeoRouter.com servers via UDP packets on port 7001.

This is extremely undesirable behaviour. Kindly elaborate on the reason for these connections?

My concerns are two fold:
1) Are the NeoRouter.com servers collecting information through "calling home" connections, if so, what information is being collected?
2) If the NeoRouter.com servers were compromised could the intruder assume control of all our endpoints or our self-hosted server by pushing down instructions and malicious code?

Kindly advise as to whether it is possible to disable all calling home behaviour on the NeoRouter Professional clients and server (so that it is completely self-hosted with absolutely no reliance / threat exposure to NeoRouter.com servers). If it is not possible at this point can you perhaps improve the product so would be possible to deploy it in this manner in the future.

Thanks

Hi data,

Please see the comments below:

1) Are the NeoRouter.com servers collecting information through "calling home" connections, if so, what information is being collected?

No.NR Server does not collect any information. However NR server will talk to our back-end server to sync up NR domain information if you use it. You can choose not to use NR domain and block the port. NR domain is designed to simplify the domain resolution so users do not need to remember the public IP and port of the NR server. But NR works without NR domain name as well.

2) If the NeoRouter.com servers were compromised could the intruder assume control of all our endpoints or our self-hosted server by pushing down instructions and malicious code?

No. Even NeoRouter.com is down, NR server and your private network will still working. This is our design goal. As mentioned before, NR can work independently.


Regarding connection to 7001 UDP, I'd like to explain a little bit. NR clients are able establish P2P connections with a little bit help of our backend intermediate server (7001/udp). In detail, NR clients need to determine its position in the network by a reference point in the Internet, then make decision weather and how to establish the P2P connection.

If the port gets blcoked or the server is down, NR clients just fail to create P2P connection and fall back to relay mode, the NR network is still running well.


Let us know if you have any question or concern.

Thanks,
KevinZ - NeoRouter team