A fellow wrote an excellent summary of some possible ways to control a TenTec Omni VII radio from the Internet. Here is the link…

http://www.haven2.com/index.php/ham-radio/122#comment-8337

He highlights the potential ways the radio can be found and compromised. This is well worth the read. The author makes a point suggesting the value of this radio’s network connection only exists if the radio is made aavailable is some fashion on the public Internet. I think the radio’s networking has more value that simple Internet control.

However the real point of my posting this is to encourage hams who buy this or similar network control radios to make sure you know what they are doing. Here are some tips:

• Don’t put this radio directly on the public Internet; TenTec makes great radios, but should not be relied upon to provide the necessary network security features.
• Use a good secure router or VPN product if you wish to gain access to your radio from the Internet; This is also a good secure way to get to other assets on your network.
• Understand that you are responsible for providing the security for your network and for preventing unquthorized access to your radio; TenTec cannot and should not be relied upon to provide the level of security of a purpose build secure router or VPN. You would not expect security from your printer either.
• Radios are radios first – Let TenTec make good radios.
• Secure routers are secure routers first – Let LinkSys, Cicso or whoever make good secure routers.

Unlike the author of the article, I think the TenTec Omni VII’s network control has usefullness within my personal private and secure network and I look forward to trying one out.