Author: Pete Pachal / Source: Mashable
Outside of a coffee shop, you probably don’t spend a ton of time thinking about the security of your Wi-Fi network. Generally we expect that, once you set up your home router with a (hopefully) strong password, things are locked down, and that anyone looking to break into your internet would need to camp out in the yard anyway, so the risk is minimal.
The truth is more complicated, even frightening. All kinds of devices now connect to the internet, often in different ways, and with levels of security that can vary wildly. And once a device is connected to a network, most Wi-Fi routers don’t do a lot of checking on the kind of traffic it may be generating or receiving. Botnets — which involve malicious code running simple devices all over the world, letting them work in concert — depend on this lax approach to security.
The BitDefender Box 2 is a new kind of router designed with security in mind. It’s also first and foremost a consumer product, with a simple setup and user-friendly app. You don’t need to be an IT expert to use it, although having the Box 2 in your life does mean you’ll be thinking about and interacting with your router more than you did before.
The benefit of that, though, is peace of mind. The Box 2 leverages the knowledge base of BitDefender (the primary business of the company is internet security, not selling routers) to actively and continually scan your devices and the traffic they’re generating for suspicious activity, warning you if something looks off. You also get a granular level of control over your devices that many (especially parents) will appreciate.
Those features come at a cost, though. Besides the $249.99 purchase price, you’ll need to subscribe to BitDefender’s security service at $99 a year (the first year is free). You can still use it as a regular router if you stop paying the fee, but then you may as well have bought a (cheaper) regular router.
Design and setup
For what it does, the BitDefender Box 2 has a rather nice design. It’s not as ostentatious as the similarly featured Norton Core, but the white-colored triangular shape is friendly and just interesting enough to make you, if not proud to display it prominently, at least not ashamed. An LED circle on one of the sides shows which is the “front” and relays the router’s status (once set up, it glows a steady blue).
Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable
Setting up any new Wi-Fi router is a serious chore. You need to disconnect your old one, set a new password, and then go through the tedious process of reconnecting each and every device in your household, which is often many.
Good thing, then, that the Box 2 lets you side-step that whole issue by using your existing router. If there’s nothing wrong with your current Wi-Fi access point, as is the case with my Apple AirPort Extreme, you can add the Box 2 as a kind of adjunct to your network — not providing Wi-Fi access, but serving as kind of a “filter” between your modem (in my case, a Verizon FiOS model) and existing router. That way, you get all the benefits of the Box 2’s security and controls without the massive “let’s change all the passwords” hassle.
Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable
If, like most, you have a modem from your ISP that also doubles as your Wi-Fi access point, you can still avoid the new-network issue by cloning your old network’s ID and password.
To fully set up the Box 2, you need to get the BitDefender Central app, which is really the secret sauce to this whole operation. The app is the gateway to tapping into all the benefits of the Box 2, and BitDefender did an impressive job making the experience attractive, easy to use, and mobile-friendly. It’s not re-inventing the wheel here — mesh routers like Eero have been doing smart, mobile Wi-Fi setup for a while, but it’s good to see it becoming the norm.
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