Raymarine e7 screen issues

mcanderson said:
Raymarine are offering to replace the screen on your e7 due to a problem that effects some units. Details here:

http://www.raymarine.co.uk/view/?id=9267

I've checked mine and it could be effected so I'm sending it in.

What a great company to being so open and offering such a great service.

No connection to Raymarine blah etc blah
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Not my impression of Raymarine either. Quote from Raymarine on a problem that:
1 they must have known about
2 made my chart plotter useless in my favorite cruising ground
"
We have received a response from Navionics indicating that the feature which you have described appears to be rooted in the Navionics software development libraries which had been available during the period that the retired C-Series Classic MFD software had been developed and supported. Correction of this problem would require that corrected Navionics software development libraries be received, that the C-Series Classic MFD software compiled/linked, and then fully tested to ensure that the libraries did not introduce unintended changes ... a significant effort which may also not be possible as the C-Series Classic MFDs were already stretched for internal memory. Unfortunately, as the C-Series Classic MFDs have been retired for some time, no further software updates are planned these MFDs and this will remain a feature of these MFDs.
"
 
I had the problem at the end of 2012, the local Raymarine agent in Spain upgraded the software to give the more detailed option for re-calibrating the screen, over winter it was not used. By early 2013 it was un-usable so I returned it via another agent in Mallorca and it was replaced by Raymarine with a new unit, this was showing signs of the problem again as we left in October 2013, I was planning to return it again to Raymarine when I return to Sicily next month. So although the problem should never have happened, I am happy with Raymarine's service and the response to this problem. Just have to send it back to the UK now if it cant be handled via the Italian agent.
 
laika said:
My recent experience trying to report an oversight in the configuration of their embedded OS was not one which makes me comfortable with buying any more of their products. Especially anything with an IP network connection:
http://stripydog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/raymarine-security-fail-customer.html
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I dont understand the issue. We are talking here of a plotter which would be on a boat - it wont have access to state secrets or even the owners bank account, so why does its security matter that much? Or even at all? What possible purpose could someone have to pirate into a plotter? How likely is it that anyone with your level of skills would be around when pottering along ther coast?

Yes I'm sure you copuld construct some scenario in which it became an issue but you couldnt construct one that is at all likely
 
birdseye said:
I dont understand the issue. We are talking here of a plotter which would be on a boat - it wont have access to state secrets or even the owners bank account, so why does its security matter that much? Or even at all? What possible purpose could someone have to pirate into a plotter? How likely is it that anyone with your level of skills would be around when pottering along ther coast?

Yes I'm sure you copuld construct some scenario in which it became an issue but you couldnt construct one that is at all likely
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Many "hackers" do it for fun and disruption. Whilst it's unlikely that someone would bother to target Raymarine plotters, leaving such holes open is asking for trouble. It is not at all difficult to turn off all these services in the firmware, they shouldn't be running in the first place.
 
birdseye;4596350What possible purpose could someone have to pirate into a plotter? [... said:
Yes I'm sure you copuld construct some scenario in which it became an issue but you couldnt construct one that is at all likely
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Leaving security aside, it's inefficient: you've got a bunch of things running which are simply serving no purpose. Actually you could argue they're taking up very few resources because once they've started up they're just sitting there waiting for something to happen (which it doesn't) but bottom line is they simply don't need to be there.

Regarding security, perhaps you'll remember that 15 or so years ago people would say something similar of their home computers: why would anyone want to hack me? I've got nothing worth stealing. The problem isn't so much people deliberately targeting you, it's automated attacks just trying to find vulnerable systems from which to launch attacks on other targets. But a plotter you say? Well if a fridge is vulnerable...
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/smart-refrigerators-tvs-hacked-send-out-spam-according-new-report-2D11947402
Remember your MFD is probably using an off-the-shelf operating system, doubtless used by a range of other devices, possibly with known vulnerabilities so we're not only worrying about malicious code which specifically targets Raymarine MFDs.

Sure if people never connect their network to the Internet, never attach a device which has been connected to the Internet, and never turn the wifi on there's nothing to worry about. There's probably not *that* much to worry about right now but as more stuff which used to be "electronic devices" become effectively network-attached computers they will increasingly be targets.

The system overhead of these unnecessary services is minimal, as is the risk, but the point is that overhead and risk just shouldn't be there at all. Even when pointed out to them they don't say "thank you but we don;t think it's a problem" they just didn't bother replying. Not considering security isn't really a sound strategy going forward for a company which is pedalling computers with an IP network connection.

With apologies for going rather off topic....
 
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