As some of you may remember, my home in Austin, Texas is full of Netgear WAX630 WiFi 6 APs, one for every 1200 square feet. Other than a small incident where his WAX630 AP fell into the garage using the stock, the mounting hardware worked very well. On the hardware side, I was very happy with this solution. From an administrative perspective, Netgear Insight needs some work. I’ve never seen this anywhere else, so I’ll explain why.
Netgear Insight requires changes
Last year I had a pretty decent idea to move STH. Despite being in a nearly 6,000 square foot home (everything is big in Texas) with great views and 1,696 fibers in the walls, I knew the move was going to happen, but I wasn’t sure when it would happen. I didn’t know. As a result, the idea of spending $9.99 per AP per year after the first year of free subscription seemed ridiculous. The Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro costs just $189 each, and your Netgear WiFi will continue to work even when your Insight management subscription expires.
As a result, the transition didn’t happen for a while, but in 2023, IT was frozen at home. This meant that the Insight app, which he primarily used only for the initial setup of his AP, was not being used regularly. . His $50-60/year was being paid to a new AP.
Of course, there was an Insight Basic subscription option, but that also seemed unnecessary since I didn’t have to manage the AP once it was installed. Netgear didn’t like the fact that people didn’t want to keep paying for services they weren’t using. Instead, he now receives about 300 emails a day informing him that he must pay to use services he doesn’t want.
I haven’t logged into the service for a long time and I don’t want to. You might think that automated emails come with an “unsubscribe” link. they don’t.
Netgear marketing emails do not have an unsubscribe link.
The last word
I submitted this feedback to the Netgear team today. For me, $50-60 a year wasn’t the most important thing. I don’t want to pay $50-60 a year instead. This is just a subscription and I don’t want to pay for it because it’s a hassle.
Also, and perhaps just as importantly, Netgear still sends status notifications for the Insight service. I still receive AP firmware update notification emails from Netgear. In October 2023, about 6 months after he let his subscription expire, Netgear was still sending me emails telling me the location was offline. Netgear Insight is collecting data from my environment because it knows the status of the APs, whether they are online or offline. In theory, that data could be used to improve products and market Netgear’s services. I don’t understand why I would have to pay for Netgear’s data collection if I don’t use Insight.
You should immediately add daily reminder emails, data collection when you are no longer a paying customer, and an unsubscribe feature. I’m sure there are MSPs, small businesses, and installers out there who love Netgear Insight. At the same time, I receive daily notifications about small-scale installations as to why I won’t be installing them either in my Arizona home or in his new STH studio. It’s a total nuisance.
We hope today’s discussion with Netgear leads to change.
