Note on the use of the word “Support”: Support here means assistance provided by Netgear employees.

What, exactly, is supported by Netgear [With regards to SSH]?

 By Grievous » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:14 pm

 … The SSH add-on was something created at the request of the user base. However, due to the nature of the add-on(enabling root access), this is far beyond the scope of function for the ReadyNAS product family. As such, it’s an “at your own risk” add-on.

 To make that a little clearer, if someone installs the ssh add-on, and suddenly has no access to their unit after accidentally dropping cup of coffee on the keyboard that just so happens to hit rm -rf / [enter] technical support cannot be expected to be responsible for handling such a situation.

 The reality is, is that supporting the backend operating system opened up via SSH would be like asking Microsoft or Apple to not charge users wanting technical support for their OS. Microsoft charging $59 for basic phone support and $515 for “Critical after hours support”; apple does offer 90 days of free phone support, only until 6pm PST, otherwise it’s $49 per phone support session for home products(OSX on a desktop) and $199 per phone support session for professional products(OSX on a server).

 Granted, Netgear support does indeed have some paid data recovery services that can handle some SSH mishaps, but it does not cover the full spectrum of problems that could potentially arise from users simply not knowing what they’re doing.

 

Does that help explain it better?

 Remember, the SSH access is an option, not an out of box feature.

 EDIT: By the way, installing the SSH add-on does not automatically void all of your tech support. For example, the SSH add-on has nothing to do with hardware, which is still covered by tech support. You can also restore your full access to support for software related issues at any time by factory defaulting your ReadyNAS and restoring the data from a backup. So no, you are not voided from using tech support forever.

 EDIT again: Just for getting the whole spectrum, Ubuntu’s support partner charges $2750 for a year of 24/7 support. Redhat charges $1299/year, and a number of other distros won’t give you pricing till you contact them over the phone. These services are for basic support, not including things like remotely accessing a system for data recovery(those incidents usually have additional charges).

Do not put the below addons unless told to by NETGEAR, for tech support reasons, before this You need to access the Remote Access Policy with the Tech: