Protect Your Netgear N600 WNDR3700 Router

This post is meant for those who own a Netgear N600 router.  Also known as Netgear WNDR3700.  The 4th generation of that particular model.  It is a dual band 300 + 300 device.  Here’s the product page on Netgear’s site for more details.  If you own this device you could be at risk.  A security researcher found a vulnerability that can allow users to take control of your network through the remote administration interface.

Netgear N600 WNDR3700

We won’t get into the technical details of how the router can be compromised.  You can read more about it on the blog post Zach Kutlip wrote regarding the issue.  Netgear is aware of the problem and is working on a bug fix due out sometime in November.  In the meantime the best way to stay safe is to make sure remote administration isn’t enabled.  The feature is disabled by default.  Just make sure you never turned it on.

If you would like to add more functionality to the router we suggest you take a look at DD-WRT firmware.  It isn’t supported by Netgear but is available on the DD-WRT site or through a 3rd party vendor.  The firmware is an open-source alternative that gives you more functionality.  We use a DD-WRT router to protect our entire home network through a single VPN account.  Including PC, Mac, mobile devices, gaming consoles and a Roku box.