Firewalla review


REVIEW – By now, almost everyone who uses an internet connected device knows something about the dangers that lurk online. For those of us that have children, there is or should be a greater sense of awareness and desire to monitor and control what content they are exposed to, at least when they are home in an environment that we can control. I have tried a couple of firewall devices in the past, but they required major configuration and they came preset to block traffic that actually was required for some online college portals and other needed websites. The process of reconfiguring them was very tedious and ultimately, I unplugged them. I just got an opportunity to test and review a similar device called Firewalla. Let’s see if it is more of the same or a more user-friendly yet effective device and experience.

What is it?

The Firewalla Red is a Cyber Security Firewall device that is designed mostly for home use. Its features include network protection from Viruses & Malware, Parental Control, the blocking of unwanted Ads, and a free VPN Server. It connects directly to your router via its 100Mbs Ethernet port and there is no associated monthly fee. There is also a Firewalla Blue device that offers additional features and is designed with business users as its focus.

What’s in the box


1 x Firewalla Red
1 x Ethernet Cable
1 x Micro USB Cable and AC Adapter
1 x Information Card

Design and features

Specifications
Dedicated hardware for cybersecurity at 100 Mbit
Quad-Core 32bit 1.0 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 16GB SD Storage

Features

    • Auto-blocking: automatically block malicious sites
    • Device Management: manage who can get on the network, and what they can do when on the network.
    • Multiple apps manage one Firewalla: allow you to manage firewalla from anywhere in the world
    • Bandwidth Usage: prevent internet over usage, know your bandwidth usage from minutes to days to a month
    • Internal and External vulnerability scans: allow you to manage “open doors” in your network
    • Dynamic DNS: allows you to safely expose certain internet services
    • Alarm Management: easily view, allow, block, and archive alarms
    • Content Filtering and activity detection: always know what each device is doing

COMPLETE CYBERSECURITY PROTECTION – “Firewalla’s unique intrusion prevention system (IDS and IPS) protects all of your home wire and wireless internet of things devices from threats like viruses, malware, hacking, phishing, and unwanted data theft when you’re using public WiFi.”

One one side of the Firewalla, there is a USB port and an Ethernet port. The ethernet port connects to your router.

The micro USB port seen below is used for power via the micro USB cable and the provided wall adapter or you can also connect Firewalla Box to any power source that has 2A current. To the right of the power port, there is the installed SD storage.

There are air vents on the other 2 sides of the device.

At the bottom of the device, there is a QR Code that you scan via the Firewalla app to initiate the setup process.

Performance

This device is very easy to set up and use. I simply downloaded and installed the app from the IOS app store. Android is also supported. I then plugged in the device and scanned the QR code on the bottom of the device from within the app. The rest of the setup was automatic, and with a few selections like the mode option, in my case, I chose the Enhanced Mode (Beta), everything was operational. The operation and features of this device are better showcased via the following screenshots from the app:















Important note: COMPATIBILITY: This is * Firewalla RED * (NOT THE FIREWALLA BLUE), The IPS functionality is limited to 100 Mbits. The manufacturer suggests that not all routers are compatible with Firewalla. Click here to view the router compatibility list. You msy be required to log in to your router to do the basic configuration.

What I like

  • Compact size
  • Ease of installation
  • Ease of use
  • Performance

What I’d change

  • I would prefer an included hard copy basic user guide

Final thoughts

The Firewall was very easy to install, and so far I like it much better than other similar devices that I have tried. It is set up wide-open in its initial state, so you get to observe and make choices as you go as opposed to others that have preset values that can be a headache to configure if the setup is complicated. I have read reviews that suggest that this device slows down the network, but I have not experienced that, and it has been simple and easy to use. I would prefer that a hard copy manual is included as opposed to having to look for the desired info on their website, but so far it is doing a good job and in my opinion, it gets a thumbs up!!

Price: $119
Where to buy: Amazon
Sample: The sample for this review was provided by Firewalla

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Firewalla review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 23, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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Akita connected home Wi-Fi security watchdog review

REVIEW – The Internet of Things (IoT).  That’s the term applied to essentially all connected devices that bring us the ability to control various items via connected apps on our PCs, tablets, and phones.  As soon as we do that, we open potential doors into our networks for bad guys to hack in and do nefarious things.  What to do, what to do?

HighIot, an Isreali-based security company, developed Akita to help address that issue.

What is it?

Akita is a small, stylish device that you connect to your network.  It then discovers your Wi-Fi IoT devices and watches them for unusual traffic.  If Akita detects anything odd, it immediately shuts down the affected device and alerts you.

What’s in the box?

  • Akita device
  • Power cord
  • International power cord adapter
  • Ethernet cable
  • User manual
  • Two cardboard coasters

Hardware specs

  • Dimensions: 3.6″ L x 3.6″ W x 3.1″ H
  • Weight: 9 oz
  • Connectivity:
    • 1 RJ45 Ethernet WAN port (not used)
    • 1 RJ45 Ethernet LAN port
    • IEEE 802.11b/g/n dual-antenna Wi-Fi
  • Processor: Qualcomm QCA9532 650 MHz
  • Memory:
    • 64MB DDR
    • 16MB flash

Design and features

Akita is a hexagonal unit that comes in a semi-matte white or gray.  I received the gray version.

The front vertical edge holds the status LEDs that flash green or blue, depending on the operational mode.

The back of the unit has the LAN and WAN ports, power port and power switch.

On the bottom, we find the product label.  That label has the serial number needed for setup, the MAC address and a QR code for the serial number, plus all the usual product info.  I masked the MAC address, and inadvertently masked the serial number as well.

Setup

Setup starts out pretty standard and as billed as 60-second simple.  Install the app (IOS or Android), plug the Ethernet cable into Akita and your router, plug in the power cord, turn on Akita, scan the QR code on the bottom or manually enter the serial number and *BOOM* you’re online and protected.  It was at this point that everything came crashing down for me.

I use an eero mesh router for my home network. It has a main router plus two wireless remote routers that connect to each other to blanket my house in strong Wi-Fi.  They broadcast on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, and seamlessly hand supported devices between the two bands depending on signal strength. 2.4GHz is stronger and longer-range yet slower than the shorter range 5GHz. They accomplish this with a single service set identifier (SSID), otherwise known as your wireless network name.

I tried everything, but since my phone automatically connects to the faster 5GHz band, and I have no option to force it to 2.4GHz, I was dead in the water.

After contacting Akita support, I waited.  I waited for six days.  Then, I finally got a reply asking me for my Akita serial number.  I replied with that, and within an hour, I got a reply.  They were able to remotely activate my Akita and confirmed that it was my eero that was causing the problem. They asked me to go into the app, click on my network and provide the password to allow Akita to start monitoring the Wi-Fi devices. *BAM* – roadblock #2.

After another back and forth with support, all done very quickly, I was told to click anywhere but on the “Oopps” [sic] window. When I did, it went away and I was able to click on my network and add the password.  Then…

My network name disappeared.  It was there, but the name was gone.  Another e-mail exchange with Akita and they were able to restore it. They said it was expected behavior.  Odd.

So, I was finally online.  The lights started switching from green to blue and back, indicating that Akita was looking for IoT devices on my Wi-Fi network.

Akita quickly found 21 devices connected to my network – again, I have blurred the MAC addresses.

Unfortunately, right after that, my eero received a firmware update and rebooted.  Timing is everything.

Tech support did report that Akita hardware is limited to 2.4Ghz and can’t connect to 5Ghz networks, however, Akita uses 2.4GHz to connect to the network and will monitor 5GHz devices as long as both SSIDs are on the same subnet.  They further reported that initially Akita was not designed nor advertised to support mesh networks and 5 GHz bands. They just updated Akita software several days ago to support mesh networks and hidden SSIDs. Again, timing is everything.

Performance

Now that I am online and Akita ultimately discovered 36 devices and has reverted into monitoring mode.  Opening the app, we see the status screen.

The visual layout of the screen resembles the hexagonal shape of the Akita itself.  Each of the six buttons is clickable. Clicking the top support button brings up the support subscription window.

Akita offers three support options:

Free – Active protection for your Smart Home

  • $0 / month
  • Network status report
  • Vulnerabilities list
  • Critical alerts
  • Monthly network security report

Advanced Protection – Human assistance and enhanced protection

  • $7.99 / month
  • Now available for only $3.99/month*
    *Limited to the first 1,000 subscribers
  • All Free features plus
    • Human assistance to help you solve the security issues discovered by Akita
    • Constant monitoring for unusual activity
    • Cutting-edge botnet attack protection
    • Real-time abnormal behavior alerts
    • Router security verification

Full-Service – Fully customized professional support

  • 29.99 / month
  • All Advanced Protection plan features plus:
    • A dedicated network security expert who will solve the security issues discovered by Akita for you

New users get one month of Advanced Protection included.  Oddly, the website calls the two paid levels “Advanced Protection” and “Full-Service” but the buttons in the app call them “Standard” and “Pro”. There is no mention of the free level in the app, only the paid levels.

Clicking on the Akita devices button brings up your device.

Here you can add more Akita devices – I think that is more of a business thing than a home user thing. You can also see your Akita and get to the settings screen.  The settings screen only shows the network and I showed that screenshot above.  The left button is the connected devices button.  That brings up the device screen that I also showed above.

Clicking on the Risks button brings up the risks screen.

It’s pretty boring and that’s a good thing!  If there were risks to report, for paid customers, it would have alerts like this:

The Account button brings up a screen where you can change your user name, subscription level and enable app notifications.

The Loyalty button brings you to their loyalty screen where you can earn points or use points.  Both options take you to Akita’s website with no further information.  This looks like a future feature.

The Support button brings up a pop-up window with a link to call support.

Other items of note:

From Akita’s website:
Akita protects WiFi devices only. It does not operate on Zigbee or Z-Wave, but it will protect any WiFi-connected hubs/controllers associated with those systems.

So, if you have any of those devices as I do, those will remain unprotected.  Lutron Caseta switches are a great example.

Akita has two types of reporting – a network status report and a monthly network security report.

For paid subscribers, the initial and monthly reports are being delivered via email. In the mobile app, customers receive notifications(alerts) which explain what kind of vulnerabilities were found. Each alert has a “Learn” button which leads to the page with resolving procedures for each of vulnerabilities. Full-Service customers may give Akita experts access to their network, so they could resolve their issues remotely. Advanced Protection subscribers have human assistance via email. Paid subscribers will continue receiving emails from support until the vulnerabilities are solved.

Free subscribers get:

  • Network status report – I have a copy of that below
    • It shows the number of problems found, however, for free subscribers the report doesn’t point on exact problem and device affected
  • Vulnerabilities list – Possible vulnerabilities list and ways to resolve them
  • Critical alerts in mobile app
  • Monthly network security report – Similar to the initial report, but this report contains information about the number of problems found in last two month with a comparison table, so customers can learn if they resolved the issues on their own correctly

Report

I received my first network status report and have copied below. I replaced the MAC addresses of my three eero routers with a description.

Akita Initial Report

Dear Garry Kolb

This is your initial home network security and vulnerabilities report from Akita.

AKITA is protecting your home since 5/7/2019

Please find bellow initial report to provide a record of what work your Akita has done by far and the status of your home network.

Akita (SN: 2018041822943) workstream:
Routers (<mac addr1>, <MAC addr2>, <MAC addr3>) security verification
Problems found * 1

* See below problems description

Network traffic monitoring
Blacklisted IP Addresses N/A
Blacklisted ports N/A
Network performance
WAN connectivity Good
WIFI connectivity Good
How to interpret your report
Parameters Good Bad
Router security verification WiFi password Strong Empty
Using default credentials No Yes
and more than 5 others …
Cyber Threat intelligence Third party#1 Scan result 0/0 > 0/0
Third party#2 Risk Level 1 > 3
Third party#3 Risk Level Not detected Detected
Third party#4 Risk Level Not detected Detected
WAN connectivity Average connection timeout < 300 ms > 300 ms
Average number of network errors per minute < 5 > 5
WIFI connectivity Signal strength > -67 dBm < -67 dBm

As you can see, it reported one issue but gives me no indication of what that issue is.  It provides good and bad ranges for a variety of network parameters but provides no indication of what those values are for my network. To me, this report is essentially useless.  Given that I was given a paid subscription for my first month, I am pretty disappointed with this report.  Based on this report alone, the reporting is essentially useless. I know I have a problem, but don’t know what it is or how to deal with it.

The next day, I received a separate email with the following information:

We want to notify you regarding compromises in your network security. AKITA found several vulnerabilities on your eero router (<mac addr1>, <MAC addr2>, <MAC addr3>):

Enabled UPNP – Some models of routers have bad implementation of UPnP. This makes your router vulnerable. Such vulnerability can help hackers change DNS setting on router. After that all devices on a LAN can be routed to a phishing site, a ransom demanding page or even encrypt your files.
The malware located on any device on the LAN can initiate as many outgoing connections to its server as it wants. If the router has UPnP enabled it means that it would trust any outgoing connections and allow to forward a port. Thus the malware would be able to bypass the router, establish a connection with malicious server and as a result provide a permanent access to your computer.

In eero routers UPNP enabled by default. If you’d like to turn it off, toggle the slider so it’s no longer green.

Based on that email, I did disable UPnP.  Since my issue count was “1”, my expectation is that this resolves all identified issues with my network. So, the combination of the report and the email does add value, but they came a day apart.

Akita does state that for paid customers, they will continue to reach out to them on critical issues until they are resolved.

What I like

  • Nice visual design
  • Easy physical connectivity
  • Easy setup process, although it didn’t work for me
  • It did identify a potential vulnerability in my network

What needs to be improved

  • Inability to connect to 5GHz networks
  • Support for more than Wi-Fi devices
  • Better support for mesh networks with single SSIDs
  • More responsive tech support – waiting six days was pretty bad
    • Once they made contact, further contacts did come quickly
  • Reporting alone conveys almost no information at all and requires a separate, follow-up email to be useful

Final thoughts

Akita is an interesting device.  For users with a more straightforward network than mine, setup should be really simple.  Akita does monitor and find vulnerabilities, as it did on my network. The amount of information you receive about those is determined by whether you opt for the free subscription or pay $3.99 (if you’re in the first 1,000 subscribers) or $7.99 per month, or more for the full-service support option.

Is it worth it?  That’s up to you.  Is insurance worth it?  That all depends on how much risk you want to take on yourself.  And that’s what Akita essentially is – insurance.  If nothing ever happens to your network, then Akita is a total waste of money.  Kind of like fire insurance is a waste of money if your house never burns down.  But, we carry insurance to ease the pain of a catastrophic loss.  Akita goes one step further by working to prevent that kind of loss on your network by proactively identifying vulnerabilities and also by turning off access to compromised devices.

Price: $99
Where to buy: Ingiegogo
Source: The sample of this product was provided by HighIoT.

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Akita connected home Wi-Fi security watchdog review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 15, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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Armadillo USB Firewall review


REVIEW – I can remember when floppy drives were the craze and then CDs and DVDs all with increasing capacities and abilities. In recent times, our demand for storage capacity and portability has resulted in USB flash drives and portable hard drives becoming the common use norm for storing and sharing files. I have come across a few people who were in a desperate position because they used someone else’s USB drive and accessed a file that was infected with a virus. In other cases, they managed to transfer an infected file from a computer to their USB drive. The result was anywhere from a small and relatively easy to rectify difficulty all the way to having to format their drive and reload their OS. In many cases, they would lose files that they failed to back up. The Armadillo USB Firewall offers protection against this type of disaster and more.

What is it?

The Armadillo USB Firewall is a high-speed USB firewall that connects between any computer and your USB device, isolating malicious firmware and keeping your computer safe. It can be used for flash drives and portable hard drives where its high-speed USB 2.0 hardware enables quick file transfers.

What’s in the box


1 x Armadillo USB Firewall
1 x User Manual
1 x Micro USB

Design and features


On one side there is a “Read Only’ mode switch that allows or restricts the data passage between two-way and one-way writeability and the micro USB jack that allows you to connect to your computer.



Shown below is the opposite side of the Firewall that has the standard USB port to plug in the portable USB drive.


Performance

The Armadillo USB Firewall is pretty much plug-and-play, and its use is quite simple. Place it in between your USB portable drive and your computer and it will protect your computer and your USB drive from malicious software that can harm your computer files. The “read only” switch allows you to prevent any malicious files from being written to your storage device. Engaging or disengaging this switch requires you to unplug the firewall from your computer and then switch the mode and reconnect. It is also important to note that the firewall only supports drives up to 2TB in capacity.

The picture below shows the firewall connected between my 2TB encrypted drive and my laptop.

What I like

  • Build quality
  • Portability

What can be improved

  • The quality of the “read-only” switch. It feels a bit cheesy.
  • The firewall should have the ability to switch modes without unplugging and reconnecting each time
  • The limitation of up to 2TB drives since larger drives are now readily available and commonly used

Final thoughts

If you use USB drives on your computer from various known or unknown sources, this is a useful device to ensure that your computer and your drive are protected from malicious files/software. This is not a device for anyone who uses their own files and never shares drives, but for many of us who do, it is helpful. It is somewhat expensive and could be more efficient. The decision to purchase this firewall device is a personal choice and in my opinion, should be based on how exposed your computer and USB drives are.

Price: $249 NZD = $171.06 US
Where to buy: Globotron website
Sample: The sample for this review was provided by Globotron

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Armadillo USB Firewall review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 27, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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TP-Link TL-WR802n 300Mbps Wireless N Nano Router review

REVIEW – It’s a connected world, and if you’re traveling there’s often issues or risks with the internet connectivity you find publicly available. Or maybe you just have the need for some sort of router that’s portable but you don’t want to lug around a full-size router and it’s associated cables and power supply.  TP-Link’s TL-WR802N is a small, easily portable router that you can fit in your pocket but is it big enough in the real world?

What is it?

The TL-WR802N from TP-Link is a wireless portable travel router that can be used as a WiFi bridge, a range extender, an access point, and more.

Design and features

At 2.2 x 2.2 x 0.7 in. (57 x 57 x18 mm), this router is tiny. You can easily fit it into your gadget bag or even into your pocket.

There’s not much to it port wise just a reset button, a micro USB port and a standard RJ45 port with doubles up as both a LAN (output) and WAN (input) port depending on the units mode.  But that certainly doesn’t limit its flexibility in any way at all.  The best thing about this little portable router is that it supports 5 different modes, useful in different situations.

Set up

Set up is really easy for all the different modes and is pretty much wizard driven.

Your first step is to set up your own private WiFi network with appropriate security, restrictions etc. I’m not going to go through this for this article but note that this is a fully functional router so I can do things like MAC filter, turn WiFi on and off at scheduled times, change my encryption, set up a guest network etc.  So the important thing above is that I have logged on with the default details and set up a WiFi network called “Nanonet” with WPA2-PSK setup. All done via a web browser (even via a mobile device with a bit of scrolling  🙂 ). All my devices are then set to remember and auto-connect to this network.

So have you ever found yourself in a hotel using their public WiFi or with no WiFi?  This can have a number of issues and these can be addressed with the above two modes:

Router mode:

The hotel doesn’t have WiFi and your device doesn’t have an ethernet port? Just plug the supply hard wired ethernet cable into the router and the WR802N creates your own WiFi network.  This has a number of advantages:

  • You almost instantly have a full private routed wifi network which separates you from the hotel’s wider network and since all my devices already know to connect to my personal Wifi Network “Nanonet”,  no additional configuration required on a device end. Traffic not intended for my devices shouldn’t be routed through.
  • If the hotel has a login screen you only have to do this for the first connected device, as the router presents a single address to the network and all additional devices appear as coming from the single router address
  • Having your own WiFi network means you can get things like Chromecasts or Fire Sticks to work (where the hotel has a login screen which these devices don’t support).

Hotspot mode:

I’ve lost count of how many hotel rooms I’ve stayed in where I’m sure they’ve given me the furthest room from the WiFi Access Point. WISP mode allows you to connect to another hotspot and use that WiFi as your “WAN” source.  It’s as easy as running the wizard in Hotspot mode, scanning for available WiFi networks, connecting and logging into the one you want and you again get all the advantages listed above in router mode but you’re connected via WiFi rather than wired connections. In this case, the ethernet port on the device becomes a standard ethernet port, so you can connect a wired device as well if you want to.

The unit can also be used in:

Range Extender mode:

Got a part of the house where you just can’t get a WiFi signal, need to boost or extend the signal?

Client Mode:

Have a (older?) device that has wired ethernet but no WiFi?  Connect this unit up to WiFi enable that device.

Access Point mode:

Just need WiFi access? Connect this up to your router and you are WiFi enabled.

I’m not going to go into too many details or get technical here but hopefully, the above pictures and text explain the basics of the flexibility of the unit. I’m also not going to go into all the options available as a router either, but you can do all the standard stuff you can with a full size router (DHCP, Dynamic DNS, MAC filtering, Guest network, Port forwarding etc).

The other advantage of the unit is that it runs off micro USB at 5v 1A.  This means it can be powered in many different ways:  via the supply 5V 1A AC charger, via your standard mobile (cell) phone 5V charger,  via a USB port on a notebook or even via a power bank.  When traveling I’ll often use the unit in Hotspot mode with the unit connected to the USB port of my Surface Tablet, easy as. You can even run it off the 12V socket in your car with an appropriate USB adapter and have a WiFi enabled vehicle (if that tickles your fancy 🙂 )

My primary uses:

I use this extensively when traveling in both router and hotspot mode.  The additional security of having a separate network, the fact that I can set up all my devices to connect to my own personal WiFi network and not have to register multiple devices on a “foreign” network and the additional “boost”  I get when I hotspot to a WiFi network (note of course that amplifying a really bad signal, still results in a really bad signal 🙂 ) make this a very versatile unit.

The other primary use I have is to extend my work network in access point mode.  There’s a black spot in a very inconvenient place (the conference room) where I need WiFi to do demonstrations.  I didn’t want to bring in a big, antenna laden router and just wanted something small and discrete that IT wouldn’t pick up on 🙂 so this fits the bill nicely.

So what are the disadvantages? 

Obviously being powered by 5V 1a, this is not a “powerhouse” router.  It’s never going to be the fastest nor is it going to have the best WiFi range.  This will definitely cover a small to medium room with its signal, more than sufficient for the purposes that this router is intended.  I have a wireless bridge at home and with my standard router (with big antennas) and I get around 12 Mbps, if I substitute in the WR802n, I get about 384 Kbps 🙂  It just doesn’t have the wifi signal strength get to the source AP that’s probably about 30 metres away.

What I like

  • Small portable size
  • Powered via 5V 1A
  • 5 flexible modes

What needs to be improved

  • Not the fastest router
  • Not the best WiFi range

Final Thoughts

This is a handy little piece of kit both while traveling and at home. It’s small size and low price is just cream on the top. If you have a need for portable WiFi solution and it’s in the constraints of this product then definitely worth a look.

Price: Approx $25.99
Where to buy: TP-Link and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was purchased with my own funds.

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TP-Link TL-WR802n 300Mbps Wireless N Nano Router review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 18, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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AmpliFi Instant System review


REVIEW – I live in an apartment building that was built many years ago and besides its very thick brick walls, all of the studs are metal. It is surprising to see how much this construction can weaken an otherwise great wireless signal. My initial solution was to place additional access points in the areas with a weakness in the signal, and that seemed to work for a while. However every so often, my Roku and Amazon streaming sticks seemed to still suffer from a weakness in the signal. I was very excited when I got the opportunity to test the Amplifi Instant System, with the hope that it would finally solve my wireless signal woes. Let’s see if it did.

What is it?

The Amplifi Instant System is a network mesh system that allows you to extend the reach of your wireless network to ensure a strong signal in areas beyond the capabilities of your base modem/router.

What’s in the box


1 x Amplifi Instant Router
1 x Mesh Point
2 x AC Adapters
1 x Instruction Manual
1 x Ethernet Cable

Design and features

Specifications:

On one side of the Instant Router, there is an ethernet port for connection to the main router or modem, an additional pass-through port to hard wire to another device, and the USB AC adapter port.


On the front of the Instant Router, there is a touchscreen that shows the date, time and status of the router.


On one side of the mesh device, there is an ethernet port that allows you to hardwire another device and the USB AC port.


At the bottom of each component, there is a LED light that goes around the entire base.

Performance

Setting up this system literally took only a few minutes. Once I connected the Instant Router to my main router, and downloaded the app, and followed the easy steps through the app, the router was fully functional and ready to go. I then plugged in the mesh device in an area in my home with a usually very weak signal, and via the app was quickly able to make the wireless connection between the router and the mesh device. and Voila!! My entire home now has a very strong and fast wireless signal everywhere. It is just that simple.


At the bottom of each component, there is a LED light that surrounds the edges. Not only is it nice looking but it senses the darkness of a room whether it is nighttime or the lights are turned off, and it turns off or on to match the ambient lighting.


APP

The app is not only used to set up connectivity but also for a host of other functions including monitoring, testing, troubleshooting and setting preferences. Here are some screenshots from the app:





What I Like

  • The size
  • The build quality
  • The ease and quickness of setting it up
  • The App and its capabilities
  • The general reliability of the connection and the speed of the connection
  • The sleek and attractive design
  • The LEDs and their sleep capability
  • The wireless range

What can be improved

  • For me, the Amplifi Instant just works, so no issues here

Final thoughts

The Amplifi Instant in a great solution for extending your wireless signal to areas of weakness within your desired jusridixction. It is very easy to set up and for me it works flawlessly. I highly recommend it as a solution for this type of isse, and I give Amplifi two thumbs up for this product.

Price: $179
Where to buy: Amplifi website and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Amplifi

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AmpliFi Instant System review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 22, 2018 at 3:00 pm.

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