I am just not interested in a router that isn't running open source firmware ever again. Not only do they have all the features you might need but the updates keep coming alongside all the nice security patches. I wish more WiFi devices for access points got their code into the kernel quicker so the support was more extensive.
This particular hijack has little to do with being open/closed source (Fritz!Box was open source for many years though). They have been around forever, I don't think custom TLDs such as .box were a thing when they chose fritz.box as the default name.
It has everything to do with being open/closed source. If it were open, you could trivially fix this behavior. Instead, and I quote:
"the DHCP server on these modems hands out leases with the DNS suffix fritz.box, which means that domains in DNS requests are appended with the suffix. Unfortunately, this setting cannot be modified...
...The only proper way to resolve this matter in my opinion is to disable the DNS suffix by default. So far there is no indication that AVM is planning to enable this option in the near future."
Well yeah, quick mitigation is easier with open source. But the cause is still entirely on the gTLD mechanism itself. The ability to register gTLDs such as .zip is ridiculous and opens up this sort of phishing and hijacking in absolutely unforeseen places.
Fritzbox was one of the first open source modem/router combo boxes though. They closed the source a few years back, but in terms of openness there really is nothing else in the modem/router combo space that is actually open source.
Most people who want a router with open source firmware get one that's compatible with OpenWrt and use that, is there a reason you don't consider that to be using open source firmware?
Helpful. It's still a champion of customizability and supports most major network modes, meaning you don't need to chuck your old wifi devices away. I still have most of my hardware from a decade ago running, and the WRT54GL serves them all quite well as a repeater.
I miss guest WiFi from FOSS solutions. I can't even find a guide quickly for VyOS, and this is the one for OpenWRT: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/guestwifi/g.... I fear that if I go down in this rabbithole, it's going to be like my homeserver, but on steroids. The $40 Tenda I use have it out of the box though, and if they stop updating it some years later, I just might buy another $40 something.
