Bitdefender BOX

The Box is a ground-breaking breaking appliance for the degree of protection it provides for the price and the relative ease of installation. Support is remarkably good. Given the pervasiveness of cyber attacks, the Box is an excellent alternative to SonicWall, which is 10 times the price and much more complicated.

I've had box+app for a year, and I hope its doing its job - very hard to know. I have kept my client side protection running as well. I got box to manage new devices on the network - of which I have a few - and for that management interface I'm giving the App 2*. Primarily the app doesn't allow me to decide if the new device should be managed - that is it was a friends device that appeared on my guest network and now I want to boot it off the app so I can see when it reappears. I also have new development devices - so I am watching new devices come on. The app is slow - days it seems - to report the new devices. To be able to test this, I again need to remove the device from the list and see when I use it and when it pops up. Then I really don't get enough information to manage them. I have to go through the whole acceptance before I can manage it including delete it. So there are some nice potential features, but admittance management just isn't easy. So 2*

All the other complains PLUS the fact that this app won't even give me notifications on my phone... I have to remember to launch the app and see if anything new is being shown on the notifications... What is the point of having notifications if I am not being notified? :-/

Updated on June 22, 2017 So many problems... Firstly, what is the data gauge measuring? It's NO up intuitive. I might as well be learning how many dollars my house is saving on oyster crackers a year by buying peanuts without knowing if they're shelled or not. Secondly, if I remove a device accidentally, it's removed forever? No backsies? They can NEVER be part of the network again? That's absolutely ridiculous... Thirdly, the web interface is limited, and I TOTALLY get that, but it's also buggy. It NEEDS fixing. Fourthly, customer service when busy is "leave a message on 15 seconds or less", and gives no warning regarding the time, so you'll get cut off abruptly if you aren't ready. Finally, I won't stay quiet about this. I know each update causes a "this was for a previous update" thing for older comments, so I'll KEEP updating my rating for this app until the problems are fixed.

Easy to install, all you need to know how to do is login to your router and change basic settings. Haven't noticed any network slowing after install.

Long review and detailed review written, but.. Due to having compromised device...

Box doesn't work with eero home network. Box requires a DHCP setting that isn't possible on the eero device. Of course they don't mention that before you buy it. 3/23/17 Yes, you can run it in bridge mode, which negates the benefits and controls one would by the eero for in the first place. In bridge mode, eero is just a simple router. Your "canned"response not withstanding.

Like the concept, tech support is great and very responsive - they deserve a 5 star rating, and are the reason for 4. I also use Bitdefender's antivirus on my machines and have had no issues. NOTE: Tech support is aware of my concerns, and told me in an email that they sent my notes on to their developers. Hopefully they can change things around, or make it so the BOX just sits in line between the modem and router and scans that way. Then we don't have to make any changes to our router at all. Would give the BOX 5 stars, but had to disable DHCP on my router in order for this to work. The BOX then steps in as the DHCP server. Nice in theory, but totally hosed me over with my wireless guest network, so now I have to expose my private network so others can use my wireless...not a good practice. Even though the guest network used a different IP range, it still used the same DHCP server on the router. Now looking to add an access point with it's own DHCP server in order to protect my private network.

Support is very responsive and timely. Great product

bitbox sucks to manage and customer service is a joke. been waiting to weeks to get a call back. Nice concept not user friendly for router reconfigure after u install this junk. Had to return router because netgear couldnt even figure out why bitbox needs to block all your acess to your router setup. BUYER'S BEWARE BEFORE U INSTALL THIS HEADACHE.

I think the app can be a little more informative or be able to do more also please give us the option to turn the persistent notification off. Otherwise great app service and box.

By far, the Box is the single most effective tool I have that has succeeded in blocking what had been persistent intrusions, hacking, spying and theft. The Box has succeeded where four good routers bought over 18 months, and where cyber security experts failed to secure and block hackers, data signal thieves, etc. My cyber life has vastly improved, leaving my ISP struggling with slower speeds as the Box frustrates constant attempts to invade and exploit my network. Every single word of this is true, and every experience I have had amounts to being a living lab for worst case scenarios in our absurdly vulnerable internet and cyber reliance. You may quote me.

Running nice since install. No problems

It is a seamless experience, and you have acess to all kinds of info about your network usage to boot.

If you want an app to connect to your box and then show you a blank white page your in luck because this app can do just that.

The app and the product dont work

The app does set up your BOX, but it took mine over 15 minutes on a 780 mbps WiFi connection to an ASUS RTAC68P router. It also does not allow you any control over the changes it makes. It doesn't even tell you what it is changing or what privacy your data will receive. The app definitely needs to add the ability to return your router to its previous settings and remove BOX. The app itself is merely an interface to allow you to see what devices are connected, rename them, and designate a group for them as well as traffic history. BOX also locked down my browsers to where I could not visit any Web page and was redirected to download a .pkg file which my Android devices could not translate, open, or otherwise use. It took me about an hour to remove the device after I had to completely reset my router and reconfigure it. Until there is an update to stop restricting my browsers and bringing my business to a halt I have removed it from my network.

Doesn't connect to the box. Updated the firmware and now won't connect to my router.

Device and app barely work. If you have any devices with fixed IPs, ports you need to customize (like slingbox), etc., there are no normal router features exposed via the app. Oh, and no browser interface to the BOX either so you're stuck with an app with almost zero features. This is a great concept, a ZERO on execution.

Given that it is in the initial release phase to the public the device does exactly what Bitdefender says it is going to do. I would really prefer to manage the device through the web instead of through the phone app given that you are managing your entire network. The app is ok but definitely has some quirks to it - sometimes you can't rename a device, everything shows up with the devices MAC address instead of IP, new devices that don't by default broadcast a device name come up as "New Device".

Followed directions exactly. Even changed user interface settings on router. Didn't work. Lost internet connection. Was up until 2 a.m. getting reconnected. Attempted a recovery on the box. It failed. Think I need to reset the box to factory settings but the site offers no help on how to do that. Emailed cust support, received no answer. This is not a quick and easy set up and I'm no tech novice. Unplugged the whole thing and stuck it back in the box. Tired of messing with it. Glad I didn't pay for it.