Fingbox Network Security System - Remote Home Monitoring System, Parental Control, Internet Security System, Alerts, Bandwidth Analysis, WiFi and Internet Troubleshooting

I should preface this review by saying I unplugged my Fingbox weeks ago, and new updates may or may not have resolved these issues.I backed this project months ago on Idiegogo, and was excited when my FIngbox arrived on my doorstep. I unboxed it, and was quickly up and running. There were some initial growing pains, which were largely corrected by a few updates the folks at Fing applied to the device automatically, but I still noticed some of my network devices occasionally dropping offline randomly, or the occasional network slow down. I never did pursue this with support at Fing, as other issues were popping up, that eventually forced me to unplug the device, and put it on a shelf, likely for good.The biggest issue I have is the lack of control users have over the functionality of the device. Once plugged in, there is no interface to interact with (other than making some minor adjustments within the Fing app, itself). You cannot disable, throttle or change anything. If Fing wants to apply a new update, you'll get it whether you want it or not, and if that messes with your network, so be it. I wanted to disable internet speed tests (it can impact network performance) as I perform that elsewhere but no, Fing decides when to run it. Want to stop it from arp posioning? No control over that either.The second thing that concerned me is where the data lives. Everything collected goes to Fing. I loved the idea of their digital fence, but does Fing really need to know every time someone with WiFi enabled on their phone walks by my house? Or when someone joins my network? Yes, I'd like to know that, but Fing doesn't, and I would have really appreciated an option where the data is stored locally, or is encrypted in the cloud with my own key. I'm certainly not accusing Fing of doing anything unethical or improper with the data, and I understand I probably care more about this more than most, but until I feel comfortable that my data will stay mine, it'll stay on the shelf.Update - Removing one star as they point you to their privacy policy, but don't answer questions about it. Links available in the comments if you're curious.

I wanted to like this product and I don't like leaving poor ratings (those are real people working hard to launch a product like this) but I just can't rely on this device. Frequently the Fing app shows this device as disconnected. No it's not. It has simply crashed. So I cycle the power and it comes back online. The problem is that I am located a 2 hour drive away from the device. So cycling the power is either a 4 hour round trip or I need to get someone else to do it. I wanted to use this device to monitor who is logged into the LAN at a vacation rental. Do I really need to ask my renters to cycle the power on this device for me? I have no problem with any other devices on my LAN but this thing has been constant trouble. I don't have time to troubleshoot. It's plugged into the router and works for a few hours and then stops. So back it goes in the box to Amazon. Disappointed.

Unboxing impressions are that the build quality of the device is poor. The plastic housing easily flexes and just feels cheap. Not a huge deal since this should just sit in a desk or rack shelf and requires no interaction past physical setup, so I shrugged it off.Initial setup was painless. Plug into network and power, install fing app on android or apple device and you're ready to start identifying devices and creating rules to block internet access to your kids devices on a schedule or on demand via the app. The most tedious process was identifying devices by MAC and IP addresses, giving them friendly device names, then assigning devices to users for scheduling. This took me a couple hours for the 40ish devices on my network.Blocking internet access worked on schedule. I could give extended time on a scheduled block or block someone right then and there if they misbehaved.The problem is everything stopped working somewhere between the 2nd and third day. I got a notification that my network was offline in the app while at work. Confirmed with my SO that everything was still online via text and came home to pulsing orange/red lights on the fingbox indicating no internet connection. Power cycling, changing router ports, resetting the device via the pinhole on the back and wading through the official support materials yielded no joy. My network is online, fingbox just refuses to believe that is the case and does not appear to operate without a live connection home.I think this isn't ready for prime time and/or needs better quality control. I'm shipping mine back for now. I may jump back onboard if there is a second version of the hardware.

I love the idea of this appliance. I really wanted this to work. I'm an IT specialist trained in networking and desktop support. So connecting a simple device that needs no configuration to work is the ideal device for a residential household network. I expected this device to simply work. I ordered and plugged into my network. Initially it worked as advertised. Then 24 hours later it stopped responding. I tried everything rebooting and resetting. Changed ethernet cable, plugged directly into router and finally consulted fing tech support. Found out fing tech support is no more than FAQs and an email address. I finally went to return the device and was offered Amazon tech support, who were very helpful and friendly. He ordered me a replacement fingbox that arrived the same evening. However the second box wouldn't even connect to the network. Just came up with a red ring, sign that it can't connect. My router didn't recognize it as a local device. So I have given up for now. Maybe a new version will get some better quality control.

I first bought this as a kickstarter project. The hardware is very flimsy and quite poorly made, but what it does is very good. When it works.The software that accompanies it is confusing to use and quite buggy, but you get the hang of it if you persevere. My problem came when I inserted the power lead and the inside broke away. This has apparently happened to other people too.The resulting support experience, unfortunately, was dreadful. There were stock texts asking me for information I'd already provided, days between each reply, and after pushing on their Facebook group I was eventually told that I "may have a discount applied" to my buying a new one. I also had to return the original damaged item at my own expense. This was only six months after receiving the first product.After a lot of back and forth they did eventually agree to refund my purchase of the second item, but this took a great deal of time and pressure.The product has the potential to be incredible, but I suspect poor quality and terrible support will prevent this from happening.

IF you are serious about network security, but do not want to spend a fortune, do consider this unit. It will keep an eye on your network and alert you if strange things happen. It can monitor intrusions into your network, give you exact DETAILS of what is online in your network, verify the speeds of your network, assist you in finding the best place for your router, and many things more. I have this unit in use now for over two months and it has proved invaluable to me as I have a large network. It avoids for you to have to constantly sign on to your router to check things as IP addresses and MAC's are right at hand. Another nice thing is that it is highly customisable.. so instead of seeing xxx.yyy.zzz.aa you can call it "Front door Drive Camera", or whatever takes your fancy. Oh.. wanna kick the kids of their games console.. one keypress and they are stopped, and you can define the time periods to your hearts content.. so home work is actually home work and not "gamework". <Smile>Highly Recommended.

I purchased the product last year, and tested it, I found it very, flimsy ;) I kept getting 'authentication failed' support were not able to help. I returned after but before I did I wrote a long email to support, what I want to share:Now to the tricky question, pls pay attention; I am concerned about how much data you sucked into your data Center.? How much info did you take. Have you copied my user and admin password? Please clarify my GDPR rights. The answer truncated was:I'm here to address your privacy concerns:- We don't store cleartext passwords. No one, including technical staff, can see your credentials.=====mmm, does this mean they store other types of passwords? I rest my case, returned it, deleted my account and looking for another but better product.

After nearly a year the box has started frequently dripping from the network. I’ve started the pain of talking slowly to support. Need to see if the 2 year warranty holds true but no t that impressed really. IPv6 means the blocking is non existent. The digital fence isn’t much use because modern phones don’t show up. The promised IFTTT hasn’t materialised. If I had my time again I would not buy it. It could be so good but is let down with a number of factors.

If like the majority of the UK you use a BT Home Hub forget buying this product unless you are a tech god and can reprogram the box with no support from find. Their support is terrible at least 3 - 4 days between replies and then one sentence replies. To be clear if you have a BT Home Hub this box does nothing more than the app. I wanted to restrict internet access at night and have the ability to pause access to certain devices. Forget it, it simply does not work unless you have a background in IT, know how to reconfigure your BT home hub.