Trend Micro Home Network Security Firewall Device - Prevent Privacy Leaks, Parental Controls, Content Filtering, Protects from Hacker Viruses & Malware - 1 Year Security Subscription

So far, I have to say that this thing is great. I have a lot of devices on my network, many of which are cheap IOT devices. I've gotten worried about just being a good internet citizen, and decided I should look into some sort of network-wide security. I tried the network security upgrade offered through my router, and found that it slowed down my network horribly. I tried jury-rigging something through my PiHole ad-blocker (subscribing to a number of phishing, botnet, and malware blocklists.) That succeeded in passing most of the zScalar internet threat tests, but the PiHole was so overloaded that the network became unstable. I then researched a lot of third-party devices and this was the only one that seemed trustworthy and unlikely to slow my network. Since I couldn't find any independent testing and few reviews, it felt risky. I took a chance and bought it. So far, this device looks like a winner. Setup was surprisingly easy, and didn't require any changes AT ALL to my network setup - just connecting to a port on the router, waiting for the light to turn green, then installing the app. I have a lot of IOT devices and computers on my network, and they're all behaving properly; no problems or interference at all. The device has done well in blocking the various virus and malware site tests I've thrown at it. It has parental controls very similar to what I've been paying for through Circle, and it hasn't noticeably affected my network speeds. It even has built in ad-blocking (I haven't confirmed how well that works, since I do have a PiHole ad-blocker running on the network so it's superfluous). I'm honestly surprised at how simple this thing has been, and how much I like it.

Update # 2 : 2 have died in a year and a half. It's just not worth it anymore. Time to consider a more substantial firewall. These aren't designed to last. The subscription price is not bad, until you factor in the cost of getting a new box every year. Ubiquiti is only a few dollars more. Updated : they took care of me Original review : Bought in April. Box is dead in under 4 months. It started about a month ago when child filters stopped working, as well as time limits. Everything got resolved and then the box stopped working, altogether... Contacted tech support and was told a new box would ship, but would take 15 days and I had to return the defective one first at my cost... With over 70 devices in my house, including security system, cameras, door locks... Home network security? I think not. I explained this to the reps and he told me that they would ship sooner and I could send back at my pace. He said that I would get an email with instructions... 2 days, no email. No instructions. I called back today. Back to the 15 day wait and no instructions... Meanwhile, my home is not protected and my 1 year subscription is wasting away by the day. Stay away from this product. Stay far away from this product. Trend Micro, get your act together... Update : September 2019 Trend micro contacted me and got on the ball. They replaced the box quickly and walked me through the steps of replacing it. All updates came down and everything seems normal. They have checked in with me several times to make sure. In a smart home, this box is absolutely necessary and being without it should not be a consideration. My stomach turns at the thought of changing to something else. During my downtime, one of my smartphones got a virus that resulted in full page ads popping up very often and randomly regardless of the app being used. I also started receiving phone calls on the same phone from other countries pretending to be trend micro and wanting to remote into one of my computers... This is not how TM works. Never do this. Contacted TM and they confirmed that it wasn't them.

I bought this device for one reason; Internet parental controls. Our house consists of two working parents with great kids that love YouTube. As the new school year started, we needed a way to place online time limits on the various desktop and tablet devices in the house. I couldn't find a router/firewall that fit the bill. And I wasn't ready to switch the home network to one of the various all-in-one Wi-Fi mesh systems that include the parental controls. Most are fairly expensive and lack some of the features I need. This Trend Micro device not only covered the parental control I needed, it added a layer of network security I wasn't looking for. Within seconds of plugging it into our switch, it found every device on the network. It allowed us to associate each device with a specific user and place limits for all of their devices, which is exactly what we we’re looking for. But it also found vulnerabilities on each device. All of which could be fixed with a firmware patch. And it found one particular device I couldn't identify. I never would have known about the device had it not been for this Trend Micro Home Network Security device. And the process to block the device was made so simple using the intuitive app on my phone. I'm blown away at how useful it is, easy to install, and inexpensive to purchase. I'm going to recommend this to everyone I know, because every home network should have one. Even if parental controls don’t apply to your home, this thing will give you a little peace of mind knowing something is monitoring your home LAN. Great job Trend!

Does what it needs to and actually blocks stuff. The only negative thing is it every so often slows down or cuts out internet speed completely by doing its periodic scans. You most definitely have to know how to configure this device to avoid that and that person isn't me. Lol. But it's easy to use otherwise and works as intended besides for that.

Ever since I connected this to my router all my video streaming apps and roku all suffered buffering every 2 minutes or so. I have a cujo which still works but support updates are once in a blue moon that is why I bought this item as a replacement. Update after reading the troubleshooting help online and calling helpdesk i played around the different station configuration and let it work for a few minutes everytime. And found out that the router im using is supposed to be Mode 1. Right now everthing is stable my roku and video streaming app have stabilized. Update:**May 1 20** I have to replace my netgear router with asus ax router since the asus router already has a built in trend micro protection on it I added the TMHS to the network and it was fine, the problem started when I added an aimesh node the node would intermittently lose connection and it slowed to a crawl. So I ditch the trend micro home security box and everything is fine again. Hope trend micro addresses this problem

Well, I wanted a home IDS/IPS without setting up IPchains or a transparent proxy. This "seemed" like it would fit the bill, and what it does is slick but not really what some of us need. What it is an easy to use threat monitor for non-security folks but you still need full AV protection and firewalls etc as well. It sets up by spoofing your routers Gateway IP address using a hackers technique called ARP poisoning and why it only needs one Ethernet port instead of the usual two a proxy would need. So all your traffic that your PCs send to 192.168.1.1 gateway are APRed away to the TrendMicro Device. It then inspects the data and blocks "Web Threats". That is the key in the quotes. While it blocked threats that you visited on normal web ports, it did not block traffic that might be a hidden BOT and using a port outbound. The main reason I returned mine is it did not detect [IDS] or block [IPS] non web port attacks performed by a device on my internal network; exactly what I want detected/blocked that an internal IDS/IPS would. I used a non-manged device to attack the enrolled and maanged devices and it says no threats detected. Yet my Host Based Intrusion Detection on the PC was seeing and blocked the attacks I sent, HIPS is what that protection is called. Another good thing it does is run what I would call Intermediate Level Vulnerability Scans. When I told it to check my devices my HIPS on my PCs would block and log the "vulnerability test" the Trend Micro Device was performing.

OK device but it doesn’t have a built-in VPN that’s the only thing that sucks

This was a great purchase! I have more than 30 connected devices at home now, from smart switches, NEST, to phones & tablets, and have always wondered if these gadgets can get hacked into. The Home Network Security box plugged in and finished updating itself in about 10 min. The surprise came when I started getting alerts that attacks to my kid's webcam have been blocked! Not sure if these attacks existed before I added this security, but definitely feels good to know there's protection. Also, the web content rules and time control for kids are AWESOME - easy to use and help keep the kids' eyesight healthy! Like - Ease of setup - plugs into existing WIFI router - Allows grouping of devices by family member and set rules by family member (like limit daily internet time to 1 hour) - No noticeable slowdown in internet speed (I have 75 Mbps at home with multiple video streaming all the time) - Asks for approval when new devices are requesting WIFI connection (good when you have a party) - Can remotely access the management app Suggestion - Maybe improve the form factor...but I guess it just needs to sit in the background and do its thing