With more and more of our time being (somewhat unfortunately) spent online, it’s perhaps an opportune moment to think about upgrading one of the more innocuous devices that you own: Your Wi-Fi router. Unless your old-fashioned enough to still be hardwiring to your modem via an ethernet cable, chances are you have a Wi-Fi router hiding somewhere in your home, and however unassuming it may be, this device is the linchpin of your internet connection. No matter how fast your ISP may be delivering internet signals to your home, if your router isn’t up to speed, you won’t get the full benefit of that connection.
But speed isn’t everything. One thing you may not consider when picking out a new Wi-Fi router is security. As anyone who has received an email from a sultan promising large sums of money knows, there are a lot of dangers lurking online. There are also the many sites containing content that, if a bit shocking to adults, is certainly stuff that we don’t want our children to see.
Enter Gryphon Online Security. Gryphon was founded four years ago by John Wu, one of the inventors of the MiFi mobile hotspot, and Arup Bhattacharya, who developed the media processors that powered the Apple iPod, after Wu found his daughter looking at inappropriate content after searching for “princesses.” The two made it their mission to keep adults and children alike safe online and block intrusions and malware by filtering the internet at the source. Because most households average 12 devices connected to their Wi-Fi networks, maintaining software and monitoring each device simply isn’t a feasible solution. And with kids averaging seven hours a day online, it’s impossible for parents to be aware of their activity all the time. (It’s estimated that 90% of children ages 8 to 16 have seen inappropriate content online.) And parents themselves and other adults aren’t safe either. It’s estimated that 70% of devices are vulnerable to hacking, and this at a time (the COVID-19 pandemic) when there has been a 330% increase in hacking activity.
The solution: a powerful mesh Wi-Fi system combined with a user-friendly app and cloud-managed network protection. Gryphon’s intelligent firewall uses adaptive machine learning to blocks viruses, malware, and hackers, while its Gryphon Connect app allows parents to filter content by age and monitor their children’s activity and screen time.
Gryphon Tower AC3000 Mesh Wi-Fi Router — $209, was $250
Gryphon’s flagship device, the Tower, is a tri-band mesh router capable of lightning speeds of up to 1.3 Gbps (your mileage may vary depending on your ISP). Plus, being a mesh router, it offers great coverage; covering up to 3,000 square-feet, it will ensure that you don’t experience dead zones in your home. Even better, this plug-and-play router is super easy to set up.
Of course, the real selling point here is the added security that Gryphon provides. It comes with a 1-year trial of Gryphon’s Advanced Internet Protection that will block spam, ransomware, malware, viruses, and unwanted content. (Afterwards, it’s only $79 per year.) It also allows parents to monitor their children’s activity and screen time via the Gryphon Connect app.
Best of all, the Tower is currently on sale at Amazon, where it has more than 1,900 positive reviews. It’s now $209, $41 off its list price.
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