Aircove | Wi-Fi 6 VPN Router for Home | Protect Unlimited Devices | Free 30-Day ExpressVPN Trial | (U.S. & Canada Version)

My initial two months of using the Aircove router from ExpressVPN have been very positive, and I recommend it as a general-purpose secure router that is extremely simple to set up.Jumping on the introductory discount of the ExpressVPN Aircove was a snap decision as a continuing expressVPN subscriber. It fit all the requirements I has for an internal home router. I already had a two-year-old WiFi5/WPA2 mesh router which provides adequate coverage in my 1300 sq-ft split-level home without requiring any satellite routers, but I wanted to move to WPA3 security for my devices that support it and VPN coverage for devices that that couldn't run expressVPN.1. SecurityNow that all of our phones and laptops support WPA3, it was time to move to make the painless upgrade to our WIFI security. I routinely noted unknown devices probing my WiFi5/WPA2 router and figured that a concerted attack was just a matter of time. I continue to use that router as my edge router for untrusted devices that I own such as smart TVs and smart home switches used for trivial functions like outdoor holiday lighting. Since most of these devices are confined to the GUEST network, penetration of any one of them is of little concern.2. ConvenienceI found the Aircove's setup to be the easiest I've ever encountered after several decades of using routers from industry leaders. It was literally a 5-minute process.An even bigger convenience factor is that the expressVPN software running on the router eliminates the frequent task of downloading and installing expressVPN updates to stay-at-home devices. I have yet to verify that the expressVPN in the router auto-updates, but even if that claim is not met, updating it manually is still a great time saver over updating my many devices with several different Operating Systems.PerformanceAs a non-gamer, I do not choose to pay for 1Gb internet service. Still, I like getting the bandwidth that I'm paying for even while protecting my devices with a VPN. Having the router spend cycles doing the the encryption and decryption degrades latency vrs having no VPN but has little effect on throughput, and allows those CPU cycles to freed up on all my devices that no longer have to run the VPN to get that protection while in my home. Given all this, a serious gamer should have a high-performance gaming router as the edge router but may want to seriously consider the Aircove as an internal router for a non-gaming network of devices.SupportAlthough this is expressVPN's first foray into selling routers, there is reason to expect better support for this product since most of it's users are paying $100/yr for the expressvpn subscription.Hardware QualityAlthough not a huge name in the home router market, the Chinese company that manufactures the hardware has a solid reputation for quality and support.PriceAt roughly half the price of comparatively powerful WiFi6/WPA3 routers that run ExpressVPN or anything of comparable quality, this purchase was a no-brainer.FeaturesAs I indicated before, the lack of GUEST network support is justified by the main goals of this router, but is alleviated when used as an internal router where an edge router supplies a GUEST network. The Aircove is also poor in the bells and whistles such as Parent Controls. Having no minor children in my home makes that a non-issue, besides, if I didn't trust my children, they would be confined to the edge router or even to it's GUEST network.There is no suite of security tools such as some companies provide on the premier routers, but I never found such to be very useful compared to just having a modicum of vigilance in reviewing your connection logs.The Aircove sports four ethernet ports in addition to the WAN port, which should be plenty in the WiFi-intensive world we live in. If not, unmanaged switches are very inexpensive.There is no USB port, which I also consider reasonable for an internal security router. If I want a low-security file-sharing device, it would make more sence to put it on the edge router. If you don't use an edge router or yours lacks a USB port,for $50 you can use something like PLEX on a RaspberryPI to flexibly share media on either your high security Aircove network or on the low security edge router network at the cost of tying up one ethernet port or buying a switch or via WiFi if you must waste wireless bandwidth in that fashion. A Roku Ultra can supply a subset of those features, as well.A minor plus feature is the four foldable antennae. This makes the Aircove a passable travel router. This works particularly well for me as it leaves the edge router behind with all the functionality that the dog/house sitter is permitted.CriticismsThere is not much to say here. WiFi 6E or 7 will be nice when our devices start supporting it. Support for other emerging wireless smart home standards would be nice, as well. The Aircove is not a mesh hub, but I could attach additional Aircoves to satellites of my mesh edge router if needed.My biggest beef is that expressVPN running on my devices runs afoul of the expressVPN running on the Aircove. The ability to list devices by hardware MAC address that should be exempted from the VPN in the Aircove is a good feature but does not help with computers that are dual-bootable where one of the OSs is auto-launching expressvpn and another is not, perhaps because it is not available for that OS. Also, I'd like to see arbitration so that the device with the later version of expressVPN wins, or if they are the same that the device yields to the Aircove. Better yet, the arbitration policy could be configurable on a device-by-device basis with the default being as previously suggested.Finally, this is a criticism only in the positive sense: the Aircove seems to boot and come on line with the VPN active remarkably quickly: an indication of it's powerful processor and efficient software.

I ordered this, along with an arris surfboard to go with my new Comcast Xfinity service that I was forced to switch to. The end story is that the router works great in my house. it is a 3 story old house with the router on the ground floor in the front of the house and it reaches the whole house. The software part of the setup was fantastically easy and the options of having the VPN in the router are so so nice. I am glad to have finally switched.The longer part of the story and the frustrating part was that I had some issues in getting it to pair with my router/ISP though in the end I am not sure why it was a headache. My modem and the Xfinity wifi set up fine. I knew I had service at the modem. I was able to plug in the router and run the setup software with almost zero effort. You plug it in, scan the code on the bottom with your phone, then run the setup via a website link that guides you through resetting passwords and setting all the options. Setting up the VPN is easy with each device joining into a default group. You then easily make different groups of VPN or not and drag and drop the devices to each group as you like.What was not working was that when I plugged the internet from my model to the router it still showed no internet signal. I was able to take this counter and plug it into my previous ISP LAN port and it worked just fine so I knew it was either Xfinity or my new surfboard modem. Repeated and rebooted many times with no difference. Changes the VPN options thinking this is what might be doing it but that makes no sense and in the end it didn't matter. I read a question on here about similar setup issues where the gentleman said he got it to work by taking a passthrough switch and sticking it between his modem and the router to fix it. I did not have a switch but I had an old router. So I took my old router and plugged it into Xfinity and the modem and that worked fine. I then took this new air cove and plugged its wan into the old wifi router and then I got the router to connect out through the chain. So that confused me but confirmed that all hardware was good and it wasn't an Xfinity black hole of non function. I then removed the old router from the chain and it kept working. So Xfinity to Arris Surfboard to Aircove functions exactly as programmed after getting the router to get recognized.The router itself and its software is great.I don't understand this process of getting the router to be recognized or which piece of equipment was the problem. But in the end, following the amazon questions and answers on here I got it going and am satisfied with it now

It replaced my Apple Ariport Base which worked flawlessly for years. The Aircove is simple to setup and the interface to choose which devices to be bundled together or no VPN or cut of access to internet all together to some other devices works very easy. BUT from day one my internet connection became unreliable. Everything would be fine for a few days and then no internet--none whatsoever. At times changing the CPN protocol can help or changing the city server can help but at other time nothing helps. I am now back on my Apple router until I can figure out the reason why this last time the router stoped working. This last episode just happened and I was not even able to connect to the router to see whatswhat... This is very disappointing. This router has a good idea to have VPN and make it esy to protect yourself but evidently this product isn't ready for the market yet. Back to the drawing board folks...Also-I I tried to resolve my issue with ExpressVPN and the customer service was of no help at all . If you bvuy this device, use it at your own risk. If anything goes wrong, you are on your own!