

Anonabox has been suspended by Kickstarter - nathancahill
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/augustgermar/anonabox-a-tor-hardware-router?status=suspended

======
uulbiy
Here are some interesting threads from reddit:

-A user found an identical device on a chinese website: [https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_rout...](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_router_raises_300000_on_kickstarter_in_48/cl9irll)

-Updated thread with a lot of info/links: [https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/)

-The infamous AMA from the "developer": [https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_augu...](https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_august_germar_a_developer_for_the_anonabox)

Edit: formatting

~~~
downandout
It seems that they're buying parts from a manufacturer and putting them
together with a custom configuration of OpenWRT. I went through the listing
and _nowhere_ does it say "all components completely designed and manufactured
by us". The OpenWRT logo is actually on their page, so they're not hiding what
they use. Open up an iPhone (which is built by third parties - not by Apple),
and you'll see components from lots of other manufacturers too. The people
complaining seem to not know that literally no one - not even Linksys or Apple
- builds routers or any other consumer electronic product entirely from
scratch.

This product is neither great nor original, but the claims that they somehow
lied about what they were doing just ring hollow to me.

~~~
51Cards
From the kick-starter page:

Our first prototypes were pretty clunky, and cost between $200-$400 just for
the parts, but they worked well and proved the concept. We knew that the
device had to be small enough to easily conceal, built with quality
components, and rock solid. But we also wanted to make it inexpensive. We
wanted to make it available to as many people as possible.

By our fourth round of prototypes we had created a model with 64mb memory and
a 580mhz CPU. This not only runs the software well, it flies!

 _At last happy with the board, we designed a simple, minimalist case in plain
white to house it. The end result is our current model. We decided to name it
the anonabox._

~~~
downandout
And? "We designed a case". "We bought lots of other prototype equipment to
make this thing before we put together the final version".

I see nothing here indicating claims that the electronics are designed and/or
built by them. It looks like they are very inexperienced at this and it took
them a long time to find the parts necessary to build what they wanted. Again,
it may be a crappy, unoriginal product. But I just don't see anything to be
outraged about.

~~~
51Cards
They didn't design the case either. The product comes complete, in the same
case, from a Chinese manufacturer. Zero assembly required... same RAM and CPU
specs... 5 different models to choose from... $20. Claiming they did ANY
hardware design, assembly, etc. is the fraudulent part.

[http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html](http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html)

~~~
downandout
Meh. They may well have played with their own designs and then found this.
Either way anyone saying this is fraudulent is being pedantic. They created a
product that does what it says. End of story.

~~~
51Cards
They put the open hardware logo beside a commercially purchased product they
claimed "we designed" at least part of. Lastly the bottom of their page is
clearly worded in reference to manufacturing... with "backup suppliers for
parts". I just can't make the same leap in acceptance that it was a wording
error.

------
ChuckMcM
This has been an interesting event. At one point coming up with an idea,
contracting out with 'far east' manufacturers to build the hardware, and
modifying open source software to put inside of it was something of a well
known business plan. This project seems to have screwed up royally in the
marketing aspect of things, but it certainly wouldn't be the first company to
buy something in Asia for $X and sell it in the US and elsewhere for $3X.

It does seem to have really validated the concept (or at least a million
dollars worth). It would have been even more interesting if this had gotten
these guys off the ground and then they had used their installed base to
create a better (and more bespoke) product. But the reddit hate has been
pretty amazing.

------
mcphage
Is there any info on why or what happened?

~~~
Mithaldu
They claim on the kickstarter page to have built the router themselves, with 3
previous generations. In fact however the hardware they sell for 51$ is
available for 20$ by chinese producers:

[http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html](http://www.atupapa.com/17043400030en.html)

~~~
androidb
Their mistake was not to mention that the hardware isn't built entirely by
them (mainboard is bought from China). However, I don't think it's fair (the
backslash). They bundle the hardware with a software, they will handle the
support, future updates so it's not like they are simply reselling a Chinese
item. If this sounds outrageous to you then you should be outraged by 99% of
the electronics items sold (because you can always buy them cheaper in China).

I'm not a supporter of this anonbox but I don't get all the outrage.

~~~
Mithaldu
The problem is that they lied.

Under "Four Years, Four Generations" they don't outright say, but make it
strongly seem like they created the board itself, and then they even do claim
they designed the case.

I hope i don't need to explain why this is a death sentence for the project.

~~~
vmind
The second link by uulbiy
([https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_tor_router_box_is_false_representation/))
shows they were much more deceptive (in direct questions) than just being
vague on their kickstarter page.

------
eksith
The same model is listed on AliExpress [http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-
Smallest-Portable-Mini-...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/World-Smallest-
Portable-Mini-100M-IEEE-802-11-b-g-n-AP-Repeater-Client-Bridge-
Wifi/1938319918.html) Unless that's a massive coincidence, they're buying off-
the-shelf and modifying it.

But there are other projects that use off-the-shelf components with custom
software. E.G. Portal
[https://github.com/grugq/portal](https://github.com/grugq/portal)

Which can run on one these [http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-
LINK-TL-WR70...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Mini-TP-LINK-TL-
WR703N-150M-Wireless-3G-Router-WR703N/623307472.html)

------
andymoe
This is too bad. I really wanted this to be a product. Wish they had been more
upfront about the whole thing. Using an off the shelf board actually gives
them a much better chance of making it happen. Hardware is really really hard
to ship :-)

~~~
miah_
There are already other open source firmware implementations that can be put
on inexpensive off the shelf hardware to do the same thing:
[http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2014/08/a-port...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2014/08/a-portable-router-that-conceals-your-internet-traffic/)

~~~
andymoe
That's great! Now where can I send my $50 bucks to have someone mail me one?
I've got my own hardware startup to run. Maybe we will put a drone on the Tor
network...

------
frewsxcv
Why was this popular in the first place? Why not just run TorBrowser?

~~~
srslack
The aim of the project was to make a transparent Tor proxy simple to use,
reducing the chance for mistakes to happen. The Tor Browser does not route all
of your traffic through Tor, only web traffic.

There are other options though, namely you've been able to configure OpenWRT
to do this for years and of course
[https://github.com/grugq/portal](https://github.com/grugq/portal). This
project would just make it much simpler and easy to use, but they haven't
inspired much confidence in the security aspect.

------
jmatt0x
For $50 I can do the Onion Pi: [https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-
pi/overview](https://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview)

------
nroach
Why?

~~~
ExpiredLink
un-American activities

