Introduction of Trend Micro HomeNetwork Security
With more devices connected to your home network, the chances of a possible cyber security breach increases. Although most routers have built in firewall or port blocking features, sometimes the lack of updates of firmware of End of life products would undermine the home network from an attack.
Trend Micro Home Network Security (HNS) comes into play to protect against such cyber attacks, be it to your smart TVs, home consoles, TV boxes, smartphones etc.
It not only protect your personal and financial data from hacking, phishing, ransomware and risky remote connections, it also blocks dangerous files download and websites browsing.
It comes with 24 mths of update with auto renewal.
Setup
It is straight forward to set up the device. Simply plug it in to the router via ethernet cable and power up. There is no configuration required as it auto sense the network.
Once, the green LED turns green, one can download the app and manage all the internet connected devices. Type your Pairing Code (found in the package) to connect your Station to the app. Using the mobile app, you can disconnect unwanted devices from your WIFI network, scan the network for potential threats, block new devices from joining the network before approving them. You can also use Alexa to manage the security using voice control.
Scanning
On the Dashboard (on the app), you have a bird’s eye view of all the devices that are protected by the HNS. You can do a Check Devices and let it scan through the network to see if there are any potential issues which may need immediate attention.
In our test case, our ASUS RT56U is found to have a security flaw. Unfortunately, this is an old model and this known vulnerability was never fixed even with it’s latest firmware dated back in 2017.
The HNS also blocks dangerous files download and website browsing. It also protects you from hacking, ransomware.
For the kids at home, you can limit their devices by controlling the amount of time online, on tablet, on gaming and control social media and block inappropriate websites.
Track Bandwidth Usage
Conclusion
Trend Micro HomeNetwork is simply a plug n play solution for your network. There are no complicated settings to meddle with. Simply plug in the device to the same router and let it auto configure.
This is especially useful if you have a network of guests which you never know if their handsets contains spywares etc when they join your guest network. With TrendMicro Home Network, you can restrict manually who is allowed to join and who isn’t.
Other than security, this device also serves as the sentry point to prevent your children from accessing certain sites and to control their time online.
You can also set a trigger it to notify you when someone joins the network.
Although it can be voice controlled by Alexa. Google home users will probably have to wait if they will support Google Home in future.
In our test, we notice a slightly impact on the network speed not not really significant to result in a crawl.
The device retails on Amazon at USD: $109.95