I've had the original V1 Fingbox for a number of years now and the lovely guys at the NZ supplier of the Fingbox reached out to me to review their V2 Fingbox. With the V1 Fingbox I found it very handy for quickly checking who was home, getting alerts on new devices on the network and alerts on abnormal activity.
The Fingbox V2 is much the same as its predecessor however does a few things a little better:
- It now supports 5GHz WiFi.
- Digital Fence now works over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.
- Wireless Intrusion Detection now also works over the full spectrum.
- Less RGB goodness, but this is a good thing.
There is a full breakdown of the features Here.
The Fingbox itself is a very small device with only 2 ports you should care about - USB power (powered by MicroUSB) along with Gigabit Ethernet.
On plugging it in you just simply launch the Fing app on your phone which walks you through the process of getting it all paired up with your account. It from there takes over scanning your network and reporting anything fishy to you as it finds them. You categorize devices like phones, laptops etc to users so it is able to tell you exactly who is home and give you the ability to "pause" internet for that user with a simple tap of a button. I can see this as being a great feature for parents as you're also able to schedule this to happen.
The Fingbox also reports on your internet speed and also internet downtime. Something I did notice with this is it isn't well suited for Gigabit internet connections (I am getting ~420Mbit on my connection on the Fingbox speedtests). It'll also report downtime if you turn off the Fingbox as expected. For users on slower plans (eg 100/20 or 200/20 UFB) this will work perfect for them.
You don't need anything special to use the Fingbox. Just simply plug it into an Ethernet port on your router and you're done. The Fingbox manages the rest.
The Fingbox isn't a full on security device and doesn't slow down your network with regular use - there is the ability to run a bandwidth analysis on a device, on my throughput tests I found in this mode it is good for about 300Mbit.
I personally like the ability to block devices off your network and the fact you get a push notification as soon as a new device connects asking you what you want to do. You can simply say goodbye to people stealing your internet or accessing your network without you knowing about it.
Lastly, the Fingbox notifies you what devices are forwarding ports using UPnP - for example, my Xbox One is a repeat offender. The Fingbox can close port forwards for you once you're done with your game. If you're running many IoT devices on your network I can see this as being a great feature knowing just what your IoT devices are up to.
Screenshots:
For a full feature breakdown visit https://nz.fingbox.com/
The Fingbox retails for $179.00 at many electronics stores or available directly from Fing.