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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DLINK Securespot Rocks!, August 17, 2006
Let me start by saying that I am a father of two very Internet savvy kids. I purchased the DLink Securespot from my local CompUSA on July 17, 2006. As of today I have had it up and running for about 4 weeks with my SBC/AT&T DSL service. I love it! It was easy to install and it performs as advertised. The support teams have been terrific, as I have made a few requests for future updates that they are considering.
I think every responsible parent should buy this product immediately, regardless of your computer knowledge. So many families are unaware of how to actually protect their kids from the ugliness of the Internet. In many cases the kids actually know more about the computer than the parents. The DLink Securespot is a simple to use yet powerful solution for protecting your family. What a true blessing. Thank you DLink and Bsecure! ***** FIVE STARS *****
Background: About 5 years ago I realized that I was going to have to work very hard to protect my kids as the Internet was beginning to show its ugly side. The good stuff was great, but the X-Rated stuff had to be blocked. I originally purchased a hardware router appliance that offered a limited number of IP addresses and provided a content filter that had an annual subscription fee. It worked well with one or two PC's, but then I bought more PC's and a couple of DVRs that needed to get to the Internet for weekly TV listing updates. Because I now have (4) PC's and (2) DVRs and a Slingbox (nifty TV thing) and a Wireless AP, I ran out of IP addresses. I constantly had to dump IP addresses and reboot the router. That went on for about 2 years. I hated it, but I had no other alternative. There was no other "Hardware" solution on the market that offered content filtering the way we had become accustomed. Not to mention the hassle of having to update the Virus Software on (4) machines. Over the years I had purchased McAfee twice, but couldn't justify the annual subscriptions for (4) machines. I had turned to AVG for virus protection. It was fine, but all of my machines had infections in the vault that I couldn't remove. That doesn't include the Adware, SpyBot and Spyware Doctor apps that I had to run constantly to keep all (4) machines running. I didn't have the time to keep up. I was drowning in upkeep.
The Scoop: The product out of the box will cover up to (4) machines for 1yr, more precisely (4) MAC addresses. This means that the hardware and all of the software updates are free for 1yr. The subscription after the first year to cover (4) machines is approx $80.00 per/year. Additional systems beyond the standard (4) can be purchased too. To cover (4) machines on the Virus Protection alone for 1yr is a bargain, the rest is gravy.
The Best Features: The Virus Protection software is up and running on all (4) systems and they are all updated regularly with little to no personal interaction. I tend to tinker with it manually to make sure it's working. I'm beginning to relax now that it has proven itself. The Content Filtering is extremely powerful and yet very flexible. The options listing for the content filtering is a lot more detailed than the product that I had before. The Reporting feature is probably one of the best things about the whole product. I have the ability to login to a secure website from home or work or anywhere, and see what sites have been visited and how many times. There is also an optional limit to how many times a site can be blocked before the machine has to be rebooted. There is also a parental password override for any blocked site, so if a site is blocked you can enter the bypass password and the site will come right up. The Spam blocking seems to be working very well as I get no more SPAM in my Outlook - No SPAM is a very good thing. The Spyware (Immunizing) needs some work, but I'm confident that future updates will resolve these deficiencies soon.
Installation Tips: Out of the box you'll need to go to the DLink website and download the latest Firmware update. Install the Firmware Update right away. Do not proceed with the installation instructions until after this has been successfully accomplished. If you have a wireless router already you'll be in great shape, but if you don't already have a newer model, I would recommend the DLink DI-634M Wireless 108G MIMO router. This will cover your home needs perfectly. I only had an Access Point before and had to buy a new router to complete the installation. I was initially a little disappointed with the added expense, but the newer technology has increased my coverage area tremendously. I am very pleased with the much needed upgrade. Once the firmware update has been accomplished you will have NO problems following the easy to follow instructions that come in the package. What a breeze!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A diamond.. (almost) in the rough.., August 3, 2006
The concept of not having to futz with antivirus apps and firewall settings and updates and subscriptions etc etc for every PC in your house is very appealing to me. Unburden your PCs, let this box be the police for your system.. So understand that I -want- this box to be a success.
Yes, it has some rough edges. D-Link IS actively issuing firmware updates, and yes, it does block pop ups, known advertising sources, it does a great job of filtering what types of websites and files you wish to be available, and yes, it does permit specific port allow/block options.
So it does a lot of good things. There IS a learning curve; if you want just to plug it in and go, well, you'll be disappointed. But I love my little black gizmo, knowing that it's on duty, it controls which PCs can access the web (and what they can do) and at what time(s) of day. And it does have antivirus etc to help ward off the bad guys.
Its not perfect, but I'm willing to work with Dlink to see it get even better. For now, I have to say, it's doing what I expected, but some glitches in the user interface are a nuisance.. and those issues seem to be being worked on by Dlink.
By the way -- I've had nothing but excellent support from their live 'chat-room' type of tech support.. a nice change from so many other places where they do all they can to prevent you from reaching tech support.
I like this box. It ain't perfect.. but its evolving, and while I'm pleased with it today, I'm expecting to be very happy with it as some of the rough edges are fixed. If you have no patience, don't buy it... yet. Otherwise, it'll help those who don't mind dinking with settings in their fight to control the internet addiction of our kids!
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As promised, June 25, 2006
This little guy is doing exactly as promised. I'm mainly using it for the parental controls, as it allows me to regulate access from any pc on my network without having to install *any* software on the computers (to get the antivirus and I think the popup blocker you need to install the the thin client, but for the firewall, parental control and I think some of the other things you don't need to install *anything* - note that they don't tell you this straight out, but if you look through DLink's support pages, it's all there).
I can't confirm the problems with tech support below, I had a problem where my unit wasn't updating - I emailed tech support and got a phone call (!!) back the next day. I spent about an hour on the phone with some very knowledgeable guy who was most assuredly American and we eventually got things sorted out (I know this is unusual, I figure I got lucky here).
Note that the 4 pc limit is for machines that you want to configure individually; if you set "client security" to low, you get the parental controls & firewall for as many PCs as your network can handle (each PC then defaults to your "local network profile") There are other (free) hardware or software solutions for firewalls, but having the parental stuff w/o having to install & configure a software package on each machine is *majorly* cool. There are four desktops and multiple laptops hanging around my house, this way I know that nobody's going to get any surfing surprises on any of the machines.
Four stars instead of five because the parental stuff is pretty aggressive, I've had to spend a lot of time fine tuning it. But I suppose that's better than the opposite.
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