CUJO Firewall Device review

[Dawgj]

Does anyone have a Cujo Firewall and do they recommend them along with antivirus on every machine in my home network? I seen them listed as low as $59 with 180 day subscription and $6 a month after. The website to the device is www.getcujo.com! it says Parental Controls coming soon. Price is good I just want to know if the device is?

 

[COLGeek]

You should always have anti-virus software installed on all machines, without exception. Regardless of the claims of any device, this is just the smart thing to do.

What do you think this device will do, over a traditional fw/router used by the vast majority of other users?

Honestly, looks like a glitzy website to hawk a basic capability that should not require a subscription. I would pass on such a product, nor would I recommend it. It just doesn't seem necessary (nor warrant the cost).

 

[USAFRet]

Big red flag:
------------------
Mobile App

Home or away, control your CUJO with an
iOS or Android smartphone app.
-------------------

Why would you need to control it from outside the home? This just increases the attack surface.
And with the abysmal development of all these 'apps', I can't help but to think that some clown left a default admin password in there somewhere.

Oh, and I imagine there is some connectivity to their 'cloud'? So when they get hacked, you get hacked.

This does nothing more than most regular consumer grade routers do.
If you need more, a $100 PC you buy on craigslist, and pfSense.
No monthly subscription needed.
It just doesn't look 'cute', with a LED smiley face.

 

[bill001g]

More the question would be why do you need/want any firewall. The simple NAT function in all routers will give you the vast majority of protection a firewall does. It prevent someone from attacking your internal machine from the internet purely because it is stupid. This is the port forwarding issue you see discussed. When traffic comes to the router from a outside source the router does not know which machine to give it to so it throws it away.

Now you see all these firewall..even expensive commercial units... claim they can do deep packet inspection and find all kinds of things. Problem is those days are long gone since it was reveled the government was doing the same thing. Almost all traffic is now encrypted via things like HTTPS. There are even browsers that now come with actual VPN to prevent any snooping of even web sites that do not encrypt the traffic.

Pretty much the only thing that knows what is going on is the end machine. This means antivirus and malware prevention software is required. The free one in windows 10 is generally good enough for most people...it is a pain to remove anyway.

It really depends why you think you need a firewall. In most cases the firewall in a home setting is used to control the access of the internal machines to some web site (ie you want to stop your kids from porn) than worrying about some hacker attacks from external sources.

 

[Dawgj]

More the question would be why do you need/want any firewall. The simple NAT function in all routers will give you the vast majority of protection a firewall does. It prevent someone from attacking your internal machine from the internet purely because it is stupid. This is the port forwarding issue you see discussed. When traffic comes to the router from a outside source the router does not know which machine to give it to so it throws it away.

Now you see all these firewall..even expensive commercial units... claim they can do deep packet inspection and find all kinds of things. Problem is those days are long gone since it was reveled the government was doing the same thing. Almost all traffic is now encrypted via things like HTTPS. There are even browsers that now come with actual VPN to prevent any snooping of even web sites that do not encrypt the traffic.

Pretty much the only thing that knows what is going on is the end machine. This means antivirus and malware prevention software is required. The free one in windows 10 is generally good enough for most people...it is a pain to remove anyway.

It really depends why you think you need a firewall. In most cases the firewall in a home setting is used to control the access of the internal machines to some web site (ie you want to stop your kids from porn) than worrying about some hacker attacks from external sources.

 

[Dawgj]

"In most cases the firewall in a home setting is used to control the access of the internal machines to some web site (ie you want to stop your kids from porn) than worrying about some hacker attacks from external sources."
Bingo! I have Foster Kids that are using proxy server and other devices to to surf porn and do other things. I had used OpenDns and their content filter but noticed a dip in bandwidth on my internet connection. I wanted some hardware to help with filtering and logs of who went where. Maybe I am asking for to much.

 

[COLGeek]

Install this app on the PCs the kids are using: http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Make sure they do not have admin access as well.

This tool works and is free.

You can also limit their access (via their MAC addresses) with darn near any router. Shut them down at bed time and not until time for school prep. Also free.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, whatever systems the kids use....in a common room, monitor facing the room.
Tough to surf porn when everyone can see what you're doing.

 

[bill001g]

I agree the k9 software is great it has been years since I played with it but bluecoat commercial appliance use the same filter lists. It is pretty much impossible to bypass and I tried even with admin access (not the secret k9 password). Not sure about win10 but I would hope it still works good.

If the kids know about proxy and vpn to bypass security already you have little hope with a external firewall. Trying to keep up with the ever changing lists of is hard and they will soon discover TOR if you really try to block them.

It is not surprising they figured out how to bypass opendns it is trivial. Since it was such a common search google actually used to suggest the word "bypass" when you search opendns.