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Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

drake19
Follower

Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

I intend on trying it when my antivirus subscription runs out. I already use BitDefender and Armor works through them anyway and it comes with an AV subscription as well.  

I've lit it up on my systems, so far it's reporting that it's working - blocking some phishing attempts, but the hit and miss reporting on the armor website is concerning. There was an issue for the past couple of weeks that caused the threats blocked section to show "server error"...not something that creates a lot of confidence in a $60 a year anti malware system.

I'll keep giving it a go, only because i'm convinced that the days of iOS/MacOS devices being largely immune to malware are over.

 
Model: Dual Band
Message 1 of 7
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

Hi @drake19, welcome to the community! Thanks for giving us your feedback. Please do not hesitate to let us know if the issue will persist or let us know what you think about the feature.

 

Dexter

Message 2 of 7
Orbi-Roc
Luminary

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

Hi @drake19 . I was just going over older unread posts and came across your earlier one in which you stated: "I'll keep giving it a go, only because i'm convinced that the days of iOS/MacOS devices being largely immune to malware are over." What's the source of your conviction I wonder? To the best of my knowledge. IOS is still immune; and while Mac OS has had a few threats over the years, Apple responded to them PDQ. Moreover, with an encrypped SSD drive, I still believe that the MAC world is pretty safe as long as users are careful  with fraudulent email messages (by avoiding to click on dubious links) and install apps from the App Store or bona fine third parties.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 3 of 7
cfansoon
Tutor

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

I just bought the R7000P and activated armor, and subscripted the yearly plan.
In fact I also has Asus AC-RT68U (AiProtection) and Dlink Dir-2660(McAfee).
All three routers connected in series so that all internet traffics need to pass through all three routers with there different protections.
I also installed Norton Security on my MacBook, so in total there are 4 protections.
I should be very safe now?

Message 4 of 7
Orbi-Roc
Luminary

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

Hi @cfansoon . It is to me, but you will no doubt find many contributors to this Community who feel otherwise. But bearing in mind that community forums such as this one mainly attract people with issues, I believe that the negative posts have to be kept in context. 

 

I had a chance to try Armor with a free 90-day trial; and frankly, I was not impressed. I allowed the trial to expire and continued to follow Community posts to see how things were progressing. I think that the Netgear Armor/Bitdefender may have been launched a little bit prematurely and sufferred a lot of growing pain in the first few months. 

 

Once I felt confident enough that most of the nicks had been ironed out, I bought the subscription. I'm pleased with Armor's performance. Is it perfect? No, but the most important issues I was confronted with during the trial have been taken care of. Armor will occasionally block valid URLs, but Bitdefender support offers an avenue to whitelist them if the user is 100% certain that the URL is not a threat. I haven't noticed any performance issues whatsoever. A key criticism for me was the absence of a narrative on threats blocked -- and this has been addressed by Armor/Bitdefender. When a threat is blocked, they now have a short explanation for it; and it's up to the user to take any follow-up action deemed necessary.

 

As far as pricing goes, when you consider that all phones, tablets, PCs and MACs, smart TVs and any other device connected to your network are protected, it's a bargain IMHO. Just to give you an example. I don't know of any antivirus software for Web OS, which is the operation system used for my LG TV. But knowing that I have that basic security scan always running at the router level (i.e. Armor), the TV is covered.

 

I do not have Bitdefender running on MacBooks. My experience with thrid party AV on MACs is that it causes problems, performance issues for the most part. If you query the Apple Support community forum, you'll find ample information on the subject. The only MAC AV that haven't caused me hiccups is ClamXAV, with Sentry activated. I had bought a liscense prior to Armor becoming available. I will likely not renew it when it runs out.

 

Did you use a trial (Armor) at first? If so, what was your experience like?

 

 

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 5 of 7
cfansoon
Tutor

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

I am happy with my R7000P Armor, I also happy with my Asus's Trendmicro and Dlink's McAfee. Next I hope to get a Norton core router, I heard it is only available in US. Maybe later some other brand router will adopt Norton's protection and make available worldwide.

Message 6 of 7
sinxsquareddx
Initiate

Re: Netgear armor expensive. Is it worth it?

I really dont think it's worth it. 

 

I might just be very cynical person but I feel like this is an unecessary moneygrab. It's basically a way for the company to "update" all existing netgear routers with this so-called netgear armor service. it's an excuse for netgear to provide you less quality service.  ever since i did not renew netgear armor after the 90 day trial, I have noticed the strangest thing.  This has never happened before, ever. I am a university student in a seperate state from my wife, who lives on the west coase where I leave all of my toys (including my netgear router).  From time to time i have to remotely access all of my devices and netgear offers this particular service the netgear nighthawk app. for many years nearly 5 years I have been able to remote into my router without a hitch, but now, i have to ask my wife and explain to her on a periodic basis how to power down the router manually because netgear has basically blocked me from my own hardware. I am adamently certain that this is the case since I never had this problem until netgear rolled out their new firmware "update" which included the netgear armor "service". 

 

basically netgear like every other company is trying to play in my insecurities and grab the money out of my wallet for absolutley no reason! netgear armor is basically open dns. it's nothing.  but they make it something by tinkering with your own hardware and basically try to manipulate you to buy more sh1t.

Model: A7000|Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi USB Adapter - USB 3.0
Message 7 of 7
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