Knowing who is active on your network is just as important for security as the firewall and WPA encryption. However, seeing what is happening on a network is difficult. Not with the Fingbox, an innovative solution that makes the users of your network visible and also offers options to regulate their use. It is the first 24/7 network monitor for home use.
fingbox
Price€ 129,-
app
iOS, Android
Connections
1x Gigabit Ethernet port, 1x USB port (for future use)
Website
www.fing.io/fingbox 8 Score 80
- Pros
- Network insight
- Easy to use
- Dutch speaking
- No subscription
- Negatives
- web portal
- No reports
- No power over Ethernet
The Fingbox was developed by the makers of Fing, a well-known network scanner app for iOS and Android, which shows which devices are all online. However, each scan is a snapshot and anything that happens between two network scans remains unseen. The Fingbox monitors the network day and night and informs you about all important events. You connect the Fingbox to a free port in the network. Let the app discover the Fingbox and configure it in a few steps. You can also login to the Fing web portal with your account. There you will find some of the functionality that the app also offers, but the app is certainly more complete and easier.
Extensive list
The Fingbox keeps a list of all devices in the network and warns you, for example, when a new device connects. It also reports suspicious services and rogue access points (also known as rogue access points). The Fingbox collects additional information from each device, such as the name, manufacturer and IP address. You can also add information such as who owns a device and where in the house it is located. The history of all devices is also saved and can always be viewed.
disconnect the internet
Do you not trust a device, or in the case of children is it better for the user to go to sleep? Then you can permanently or temporarily deny the device access to the network or the internet. For this, the Fingbox uses different techniques at the data link layer such as arp spoofing and arp-poisoning with which it can disconnect or temporarily redirect the traffic flow. It also uses this capability to, for example, monitor a device's bandwidth usage. In addition to logging and security, the Fingbox can do more, such as remotely powering on devices via wake-on-lan, measuring Wi-Fi speed and internet connection speed, and – remarkably – reporting which disconnected Wi-Fi connections are available. devices are close to the home network.
Conclusion
The Fingbox is not a firewall and does not scan for malware. However, the insight it provides into the use of the home network is more than welcome as the number of devices with a network connection only increases. The online portal deserves an update and weekly or monthly reports would also be useful. The Fingbox is not cheap, but there are no subscription costs involved.
