Gryphon Connect

What is Gryphon Mesh WiFi Security Router & Parental Control System?

The Gryphon app for Android and iOS devices is part of the Gryphon Mesh WiFi Security Router & Parental Control System. It is free but works with an associated well-featured mesh router, which will provide your home network with an upgrade in more ways than just internet safety and control. The app is where you'll configure the controls and settings.

The router is tri-band with True Mesh WiFi. Its coverage will depend on your home's construction and layout, but it offers up to 3,000 square feet. Hardware reviews are not usually part of our test criteria, so we cannot test its claimed specifications other than to say it covered a three-bedroom home with quick WiFi coverage.

Gryphon has many features that will be of interest to parents who want to provide digital safety for their kids:

Robust: there is no way for kids to overcome Gryphon's protection as the router always sits between them and the Internet

Web history: Gryphon preserves the web history for each device independently of a browser's history. Kids can't delete records of the pages they have visited.

Content filtering: Gryphon has a premade, age-categorised list of sites to block, and you can add your own.

Time controls: Granular settings to restrict internet access for homework time and during the night.

Instant off: Need everyone's attention? Hit the Internet off button in your app to suspend everyone's connection.

Per-app controls: Always block, never block or block at certain times lets you set firm rules and ensure kids have the tools to do their homework but not the distractions to hold them back.

In this review of Gryphon, we will concentrate on the features and benefits regarding its parental controls and digital family protection.

What we love about Gryphon

As the Gryphon solution to Internet safety comprises two parts — the app and the router both need to satisfy us to recommend the product. Fortunately, they both do.

The Gryphon Router

If you get a router as part of your internet package, it probably won't be a particularly capable model. They can have a limited range, struggle when lots of devices connect, or frequently drop out. The Gryphon routers are premium products with benefits beyond the family protection tools.

The Gryphon products are mesh routers which let you combine them with others of the same type to extend your home WiFi coverage. When devices connect through WiFi repeaters, it will typically be slower than when connected directly to the router. This is not the case when you add a second mesh router—the service remains consistent, whichever router your device uses.

As you might dot them around your home rather than hide them in a corner as you would with a single router, mesh routers look better. The Gryphon feels premium with its matt white finish and twisted cuboid shape. It will sit unobtrusive but stylish in any room.

In our tests, the connection to the router remained stable and was at least as fast as the service-provider router it replaced.

The Gryphon App

The Gryphon Router is what enforces the rules, but the Gryphon app is where you set them. The app has a user interface that follows a similar style to many other apps, which makes it easy to understand. You select the desired section from the icons at the bottom and then interact with the associated content or settings on the upper part of the screen.

The app has a clean and modern look to it. We found the options and settings to be where we expected, and the information communicated by the device was clear and logical.

Gryphon as a Whole

Putting the app and the hardware together results in a very robust platform. The router sits between every device in your home and the Internet, so incorporating it into the protection makes a lot of sense.

In many parent control solutions, paying careful attention to the set-up instructions is important because ticking the wrong option could result in a loophole or provide a way for kids to disarm the protections.

When the router recognises every device and applies its rules to it, there is no way around it. Kids can't delete the protection from their tablets and computers because that's not where it resides. Turning off the router will fully disconnect the Internet, so that won't work.

Only parents who have set up the router and app can change the rules.

What skills does it teach?

Gryphon protects kids as they use the Internet to develop skills and knowledge.

What age is it appropriate for?

Adults purchase and set up Gryphon to provide digital safety for their kids.

Is Gryphon easy to use?

If you've had to configure routers using basic web page interfaces in the past, you'll appreciate how much nicer it is to use Gryphon's cleanly designed app. It will help you install your router and get everything connected to it, and then it is your control panel for parental controls and information.

If you get stuck, a live customer support facility is available seven days a week.

How will students benefit?

Kids might not be fans of parental control software, but if the choice is between them and no access, they'll happily accept it. Not having the app frees up space on their devices, avoids taking up time for updates, and prevents having to pass the device to parents to make changes.

The timed controls can help with focus. Kids sometimes struggle to complete homework because their device is also the platform for their favourite online content. Knowing that their entertainment content is unavailable but educational material is during certain hours will help kids be more in the moment.

They can concentrate on their studies during the allotted time and enjoy their leisure without the pressure of knowing there is work still to do.

How will parents benefit?

Before you buy the Gryphon package, you can get a helpful Digital Parenting Guide from the associated website. While it naturally refers to how Gryphon can be a solution, it includes useful, awareness-rasing advice that will be useful for anyone researching how to protect their kids from the less pleasant aspects of the Internet.

Parents need to spend a little time thinking and creating the parameters within which they will let their kids access the Internet, but it remains in place once set. The rules are granular enough to implement different controls for different days without revisiting them.

The Gryphon app gives parents powerful tools but also convenient flexibility. If you want to deviate from the usual controls temporarily, it is easy to make changes. As your kids grow up, you might relax a few of the rules. Unlike some parent control services, you don't need to access your kids' devices.

The key benefit to parents is the strength of Gryphon's protection. Parents can set it up and never touch it again, and it will continue to work to those rules, which its router-based design will enforce without fail.

How will teachers benefit?

This app/router package is designed for home use.

What can Gryphon improve on?

Not so much an improvement as something you should know — Gryphon can only protect internet access through your home network. This will be enough for many families with young kids, but as kids eventually get cell phones, they'll also have cellular data, which does not go through the router.

If you need this, you can subscribe to the Gryphon Premium service, but it is not required to use the router fully.

If you've ever wanted to connect to your router with a USB device, you won't be able to with this router as it lacks the port. If this is something you've never done, it likely won't bother you.

How much does Gryphon cost?

The Gryphon Router is the primary purchase for this family protection service. The app is free; you do not have to pay for any subscription or in-app purchases. An upgraded service is available through a subscription, but this is not part of this Gryphon review. Everything discussed in this review is available without further payment.

The subscription, if you choose to use it, has multiple features, but parents will mostly be interested in the malware protection and ability to extend the Gryphon protection to mobile devices connecting via mobile data or other WiFi networks.

Gryphon's website shows a 90-day money-back guarantee.

Is Gryphon app safe to use?

Everything you do through your home internet will pass through the Gryphon router, as with your current router. This always involves trusting your router supplier to act responsibly with your data.

Overall rating of the app.

While there are many options for parental control apps, Gryphon's approach is compelling but different from purely app-based parent control products. Having independent hardware between your kids' devices and the Internet feels reassuring. It is not false confidence either, as we discovered in this review that it worked effectively and upgraded a less-than-stellar service-provided router. Gryphon, the app and the router form a five-star package.