D-LINK D-FEND
A secure, family-friendly AC2600 router.
“The parental controls allow you to set profiles for different children and assign them to different devices. ”
Last year, Symantec’s funky-looking Norton Core router impressed us by offering decent Wi-Fi married with network security. However, it’s being phased out, so D-Link’s rice-cookerlooking rival comes at a good time for those seeking a security-focused family oriented router.
The D-Fend represents a three-way collaboration: it’s a D-Link product running McAfee’s Secure Home Platform using Intel’s System-on-Chip (SoC) hardware. It secures everything on your network (especially vulnerable smart devices) and automatically isolates threats.
D-Link’s Wi-Fi app walks you through basic name-andpassword set-up before prompting you to download a separate D-Fend app. The former offers few options beyond combining (or separating) the 2.4GHz and
5GHz network bands into one network, setting-up a guest network, implementing access schedules and integrating Google Assistant and Alexa.
The D-Fend app makes securing your network simple, but isn’t quite seamless; when it said we were secure, it confusingly displayed a ‘two-thirds complete’ pictogram, for example. Notifications appear whenever a new device connects to the network, and you’re invited to rename and confirm the type of device when this happens. Unfortunately, these useful labels aren’t then shared with the Wi-Fi app (or browser-accessed firmware settings) which still list all client devices by MAC address.
The parental controls allow you to set profiles for different children and assign them to different devices. Each can have a different access schedule while content can be automatically blocked according to their age group. We were slightly annoyed that the broad settings blocked apps like Stan and Netflix by default, but other categories were more useful. While many of the obvious high-profile sites were correctly blocked for each content category, it’s worth remembering that no blacklist of dubious sites will ever be complete – especially to the dedicated teen.
In terms of performance, it never managed to deliver peak Wi-Fi performance: our 115Mbps internet connection was tested and verified by the D-Link router itself but, when beamed to our test iPad Pro, only managed 100Mbps up close. However, it did only drop to 90Mbps one floor up and still managed an impressive 64Mbps two-floors up, which means there was no urgent need for a range extender.
D-Fend can also send invites to network clients to download McAfee LiveSafe Internet Security (where compatible). The resulting subscriptions last for 2 years and are worth $300. The integrated McAfee Secure Home platform comes with a 5-year license which we’re told is worth $600.
It’s not cheap for an AC2600 router, but there’s value on offer. While parental controls and built-in security are becoming common features of the latest AX routers, they’re not as well-integrated. With Norton Core going end-of-life, the D-Fend is a worthy successor and its enhanced security doesn’t come with any significant performance limitations.