600,000 routers 'bricked' over 72-hours

[OneStepBack]

I suspect (but I don't know for certain) that preventing your ISP from updating the firmware probably 'violates' your contractual 'agreement' with them as a service provider.  Those agreements are usually why many people can't simply "buy the best router" and use it instead of the one they 'provide' you.

I like the idea of virtualizing the router, but I think in so far as 'security' it just opens up a whole new way to exploit the situation.

I have been with numerous ISPs here in the UK over the years and I have always used my own router.  The routers the ISPs provide are usually very cheap with only basic functionality. The router I use also provides a wi-fi guest network which comes in very handy.  Saying that I am still on ADSL.  The fibre-optic cable is in a junction box at the end of the road.  From the junction box to our home is copper wire so we are restricted to 39 mb/s.

In the last month our road has just had both underground fibre-optic cables and poles with fibre-optic cables (2 different companies).  When my current contract ends I will go onto full fibre with one of these companies.  Maybe its different story as far as the modem and wifi with full fibre.  Thanks for posting this issue.  I intend to find out which modems they are both using.

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Pfsense is good if you're into BSD. I never use the ISP Wifi router functionality, only as a modem. If you like pfsense you might also like OpenWRT which is Linux based and quite actively developing. Prior to that I ran LEDE and DD-WRT. I also had a homebrew Devian box running ages ago but it's a lot more maintenance that way.

It should be criminal for these cheap router companies to fail to release security patches.

I have an ethernet connection like you.  The wi-fi is for my mother's laptop with firesticks and FreeSat on the guest network. I use Linux so thanks for the heads up on OpenWRT.  I will check it out.