Comprehensive Internet security device

I’ve been on the lookout for a device to combine Internet security with local network and WiFi routing – looks like I’ve found it in the Gryphon AC3000.
The Gryphon combines a configurable, comprehensive and secure family home router with a leading industry Internet security software product from ESET – without the hassle of installing security software on each computer.

Everything on your home network is secured – including smartphones, tablets and all those IoT ‘Things’ such as doorbells, assistants, cameras, TVs, CASTers, NAS and VoIP phones. It provides levels of security for each Internet user in your household – with options to apply restrictions by age and content.

Set-up is done via the Gryphon smartphone app (Android or Apple) – so downloading and opening the app is your first step. Check out the suggested instructional video and follow the prompts.

You are asked to create a Gryphon Connect account, which is verified by email. You then use the app to create a secure connection with your Gryphon by scanning the bar-code on the base of the Gryphon with your smartphone’s camera. There is no other way to configure it – but this is definitely a big plus point from the security point of view – no hackable web consoles etc.

In my case I first documented my existing setup of IP address allocations, DHCP settings and the IP address of my Virgin Media SmartHub2 – a combined Internet modem and router (wired and WiFi). To avoid having to redo all the addressing of my various ‘Things’ I decided to replicate these settings in the Gryphon. If I wasn’t so bothered I could have let it make it’s default settings – probably best for most people.

To get going I first had to put the VM SmartHub in to ‘Modem’ mode as detailed here: www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode.

Then I followed the Gryphon app’s instructions to connect them together and make the Internet connection. I found that I had to power both off and back on after waiting a couple of minutes for the Internet re-connection to succeed (as prompted by the app).

In Network settings I changed the Gryphon’s IP address to match the original VM Superhub’s address of 192.168.0.1 – the Superhub uses a different address in modem mode.

In WiFi settings I replicated the Superhub’s 2G and 5G SSIDs and de-selected Auto Band Steering to make them visible separately.

Bingo – as the Gryphon discovered my switched on devices and things I adjusted those few it couldn’t categorise, such as a USB server used for some old non-networked printers – categorising it as a Printer did the job. I was also pleased that it correctly categorised my QNAP NAS and Gigaset VOiP with no need for any manual port forwarding.

If you use alternative search engines to Google/Bing, such as DuckDuckGo, you’ll need to de-select the Safe Search option per user.

Time will tell if the Gryphon matches up to expectations, but so far so good – I’ll add comments here if anything crops up from using it.