To be honest, that’s one of the major pros that makes using the Netgear Armor worth it. Why would you need that when you have the router? Because it’s going to continue to work when you’re out of the home network, so it’s a very nice feature to have on your Windows, macOS, iOS and Android machines. You essentially get to install the Bitdefender Security on an unlimited amount of devices (that are eligible), pretty much extending the capabilities of the Netgear Armor. Then, there’s the ‘Devices Eligible for Bitdefender Security’ area and it’s an interesting aspect that I have not seen on the TrendMicro’s platform for routers. Upmost, there’s a score to let you know how much you can improve to ensure the security of your network and there is a guide with the best practices on how to improve this score. I have recently tested the Netgear RAX43 and after installing the Netgear Armor (it pretty much does it automatically), the trial version, I noticed that there are a few areas of interest in the app. Detect and block infected devices in your network.You never know when new, less tech-inclined neighbours might move in and throw your perfect setup into disarray. It’d be nice if Wi-Fi was fire-and-forget, and for the most part it is, but to ensure you always have the best signal, it’s good to take the time every once and awhile to check the channel, especially if you live in a complex. Channel 11 (usually the recommended default) was all-clear, so I switched over and straight away noticed an improvement. Sure enough, firing up Vistumbler revealed the once clear channel 8 was now busy with two other access points. For some reason, it didn’t immediately occur to me to check what other Wi-Fi signals were cluttering up my router’s channel. Initially, I just blamed it on solar winds and other intangibles. Where it was once possible to smoothly stream videos from my upstairs server to my laptop, which was connected to my TV downstairs via HDMI, it had suddenly become a nightmare, with Media Player lagging and playing catch-up and VLC stuttering like no tomorrow.

However, a few months ago we started having constant drop-outs. Originally, I had my Billion 5200N (above) broadcasting on channel 8 and reception was strong throughout the apartment.

Netgear wifi channel scanner