Editors' Note: Symantec has discontinued the production of the Norton Core and it is no longer available for purchase. Current Norton Core customers with an active subscription to Norton Core Security Plus software will continue to receive protection for their home network, connected devices, laptops, tablets and smartphones through January 31, 2021.
The Symantec Norton Core router ($279.99) is an ambitious device in both design and function. It not only looks stunning—and begs to be showcased, rather than hidden behind your TV—but includes advanced network security tools and parental control features. With it, you can rest assured that your so-called "smart" devices without security software won't be hijacked into a botnet or weaponized by ne'er-do-wells. The comparably high cost of the Core also includes a generous, unlimited subscription to Norton antivirus software, extending protection down to individual devices. That said, if you want to use it as more than just a router, you'll need to pay ongoing subscription fees after the first year.
The Cost of the Core
The Norton Core costs a hefty $279.99, which puts it near, but by no means at, the top of the most expensive routers available. The D-Link AC5300 Ultra Wi-Fi Router (DIR-895L/R) has comparable specs and is highly rated, but costs a hundred dollars more at $379.99. It's also one of the best routers we've seen. Of course, a router need not cost hundreds of dollars to be excellent. The humble TP-Link Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (V2) costs a mere $79.99. It doesn't offer nearly as much as the Core, but what it does, it does well.
Although Norton calls the Core a router, it's also a network security device. Bitdefender was the first to market with the Bitdefender Box, which is intended to be used with your router instead of as a complete replacement. It can work as a router, albeit anemically. The F-Secure Sense is a much closer comparison to the Core. It also functions as a standalone router but, notably, costs only $199. We look forward to testing it soon.
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Along with the Core's price, a year of Norton Core Security Plus antivirus software is included for free, along with an unlimited number of device licenses so you can install Norton protection on all of your Windows machines, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Norton also throws in 25GB of cloud backup to sweeten the deal. Core Security might sound like new software, but it's actually Norton Security Premium, which earned a near-perfect score and an Editors' Choice in our testing.
After your first year, continued protection costs $9.90 per month. If you decide not to pay the ongoing subscription fee, the Core will continue to work as a router. However, you'll lose all of its built-in security features, parental controls, and the Core Security Plus software you've installed will no longer function.
Notably missing from the software and hardware bundle is a virtual private network, or VPN. The company does offer a standalone VPN product in Norton WiFi Privacy, but you'll have to shell out an additional $49.99 a year for on-brand VPN protection. That's disappointing, because adding VPN protection at the network level secures all the traffic for your devices on that network. Bitdefender includes a feature it calls Private Line with the Bitdefender Box, which allows you to VPN back to your home network in order to access the internet.
A Strange, Inscrutable Object
With the exception of some newer mesh-based, multi-node Wi-Fi systems, one wouldn't call most routers attractive. They tend to be boxy, bulky, and sport one too many antennae to confidently show off in your living room. This is where the Norton Core stands out—it's a router that's meant to be displayed.
The sleek Core looks like it belongs in an Architectural Digest spread. It's a rounded polyhedral with 88 triangular facets based on Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome concept. Size-wise, it resembles a large grapefruit at roughly 6 by 6 by 5 inches (HWD) and it comes in two colors: Granite Gray and Titanium Gold (as you can see, we tested the gray model). It has an LED light ring at its base, which glows white when operating normally and amber when it needs attention.
On the back, there's a discreet Norton logo, and at the bottom, a scooped-out section for cables. Norton thoughtfully included a sleek cord organizer, lest your poor cable management detract from the Core's appearance. Underneath you'll find one Gb WAN port, three Gb LAN ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a power jack, and a refresh button. There's also a Bluetooth Low Energy radio, which is currently used during the setup process.
We have just a few minor design nitpicks. If you look closely, there's a noticeable seam between the Core's top and bottom halves. Plus, it runs warm due to the lack of venting, and the light ring is a bit difficult to see from up close. Lastly, the gunmetal color is a bit darker and duller than it appears in photos.
It's What's Inside That Counts
Inside the Core, there's a 1.7GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of eMMC Flash memory. It has 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual-band radios, and supports dual-band 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi, on top of MU-MIMO streaming technology. It's also a 4x4 AC 2600 router.
The stylish sphere hides a 2- to 3-inch antenna tower with four dual-band antennae positioned in a phased array to provide 365 degrees of coverage. The tower is capable of what a Norton representative describes as "beam forming," which means it can dynamically extend coverage to wherever it detects users. If you move your laptop to the kitchen, for example, the Core should be able to use its directional antennae to boost the signal there.
While Norton includes some remarkable technology under the Core's faceted face, the past year has seen a surge in mesh routers that take aesthetics seriously. The Linksys Velop includes a three-pack of white, monolithic networking devices for $499.99, while Google's small, white, puck-shaped Google Wifi devices cost $299.99 for three (and $129 a piece). These devices spread Wi-Fi throughout your home, and are stylish enough that you won't feel an overwhelming compulsion to hide them.
According to Norton, if your router isn't a tangle of unsightly cords, you're more likely to put it in an area—say a TV stand or coffee table—that will improve your home's Wi-Fi coverage.
The Core turned in decent scores on our throughput tests, but could not keep pace with our top-performing AC2600 routers. Its score of 86Mbps on our 2.4GHz close proximity (same room) test trailed the Synology RT2600ac and the Trendnet AC2600 StreamBoost MU-MIMO WiFi Router (TEW-827DRU), and was a hair slower than the Roqos Core, a competing security-minded router with an AC1600 data rate. At a distance of 30 feet, the Norton Core garnered 53Mbps, beating the Roqos router but not the Synology or the Trendnet.
Results were similar on our 5GHz throughput tests, only this time the Core outperformed the Roqos router, if only by a small margin. Its score of 451Mbps on the close proximity test was nearly identical to the Roqos, but more than 100Mbps slower than the Synology and Trendnet routers. At a distance of 30 feet, the Core managed 138Mbps, edging past the Roqos but coming up short compared the others.
To test MU-MIMO performance we use three identical Acer Aspire R13 laptops equipped with Qualcomm's QCA61x4A MU-MIMO circuitry. Again, the Norton Core's throughput was good but not great. Its score of 118Mbps on the close proximity MU-MIMO test trailed the Synology RT2600ac, the Trendnet AC2600 TEW-827DRU, and the Zyxel Armor Z2 NBG6817, all of which are AC2600 routers. It fared much better at a distance of 30 feet; it scored 107Mbps, beating the Synology and Zyxel routers but not the Trendnet.
Taking the Core Online
Unlike most routers, you don't have to go through the typically painful process of using your computer to log into a crummy website to configure your network. All you have to do is download the Norton Core app for either Android or iOS, and create a Norton account. The experience is similar to setting up any router compatible with the Google Wifi app or the Bitdefender Box. Notably, we never had to connect to a temporary Wi-Fi network created by the Core, which is standard procedure for many smart devices. Instead, the Core seamlessly used its Bluetooth radio to communicate with our phone.
You'll then be prompted to select the type of network connection you have, and from there the app will walk you through naming your network and setting up a password. All in all, it took about 15 minutes to get everything up and running. Most of that time was taken up by the Core updating its firmware and getting itself ready; it was a remarkably easy experience from start to finish.
App Control
As for the app, it's attractively designed and simple to use, just like the Core. It has a clean and intuitive interface, which means you should be able to figure out where everything is after playing around for about five to ten minutes. There's also never too much information on one screen, making it easy to find and digest what you're looking for.
On the main screen, you'll find a Security Score, the number of threats blocked, and network stats such as traffic scanned, devices connected, and internet speed. You can also easily create a guest network, which can be time-limited. Your family's individual internet usage is available for view after you set up profiles for each member. In the upper right, you can tap a bell icon to see your activity feed and notifications.
If you tap the icon in the upper left corner, you can access different menus such as Home, Security, People, Devices, Network, Settings, and Help. Some, such as Settings and Help, are pretty self-explanatory. Security will give you more information about your network's score, as well as ways to improve it. You can set up individual profiles in People, including age for parental controls and daily time limits. You can also manage a list of allowed and blocked sites per person, and associate which devices on the network belong to whom.
The Devices menu lets you pause internet for all, or some, devices. It also lets you view which devices are currently connected, and which have previously been connected. Lastly, you can view internet speeds and bandwidth consumption, and select priority devices via the Network menu.
Secure to the Core
The Core keeps a careful watch on the data flowing into and out of your network, watching for anything suspicious. If it notices malformed traffic, or requests being made to known malicious (or at least suspicious) entities online, it will take action. Whatever device initiated that traffic will have its internet access revoked, effectively shutting down a potential attack.
The Core also has unique network control features, and this is where things really get interesting. For example, it can monitor and control connections inside its own network. When the Core detects suspicious activity, such as your printer trying to communicate with your smart TV, it can quarantine them on your network.
Norton is able to make determinations about what traffic is and isn't safe thanks to knowledge built from 300 million endpoint users. The data the company collects is fed into a machine learning model that can identify dangerous behavior.
The Core has three traffic scanning modes, from the most permissive to the most critical. By default, it's set to the second, middle setting. In Full Scanning mode, even if the traffic is known to be safe, the Core will still scan everything. Whenever it finds something troubling, it takes action and sends you an alert through the app.
When traditional antivirus detects a suspicious file, it often quarantines it and then ask you what should be done with it. Similarly, the Core can quarantine any device on the network that starts misbehaving. Quarantined devices are shunted onto a separate network (similar to a virtual LAN) and have their access to the internet revoked. You can opt to re-establish the device's internet connection, perhaps to perform repairs or update firmware, without bringing the device back on to your network.
In testing, we immediately received notifications whenever there was a security issue. The overall Security Score on the main page also changed in response to our actions, both positively and negatively.
Notably, the Core is smart about how it responds. We initially plugged it into another router that's part of our network testing infrastructure. That's not the intended configuration, and an alert in the app told us as much. But the Core continued to function perfectly, and didn't see the need to cut off its own internet access. That's great, because other hardware security devices tested in the hallowed halls of PC Labs have been far more finicky.
Keep in mind that the Core only looks at network traffic. If, for example, you brought an infected device onto your Core network, it wouldn't be able to detect it. That is, until the infected device tried to do something on the network, like attempting to infect other devices or calling home to a command and control server. Norton includes client software in the Core's price in order to extend protection from the router down to individual devices.
Also, the Core can only scan unencrypted traffic. If your device is communicating over VPN or HTTPS, the Core can no longer see your web traffic. But that's a good thing, and shows how Norton has balanced an adherence to best practices and customer privacy against overall security.
Representatives from Norton were quick to point out that even in these circumstances, the Core still offers some protection. While it cannot see HTTPS traffic, it can see the domain that's being requested and can still block traffic going to or from suspicious URLs. If you take advantage of the included software licenses, even if something nefarious is transmitted to your device via an encrypted connection, the local antivirus will catch it.
Cracking the Core
To test how the Core handles potentially malicious traffic, we used the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization's (AMTSO) suite of tools. These are harmless files that most major antivirus companies have agreed to detect as malicious in order to determine performance. We did not use live malware in our testing out of an abundance of caution.
We were happy to see that the Norton Core detected manual malware downloads, drive-by downloads, compressed malware (in 11 different formats) downloads, and Potentially Unwanted App downloads. We also confirmed that the Core's cloud detection abilities were functioning properly using the AMTSO's cloud protection test.
Notably, the Core did not block the AMTSO's phishing protection test page. Neil Rubenking, PCMag's lead security analyst, informed us this is an ongoing issue with Norton products.
We also ventured to 10 fresh phishing pages recorded on PhishTank. These are fresh links, which is important because phishing pages tend to come and go quickly. Unfortunately, the Core did not block any of these pages. That's a small sample, but hopefully Norton can reduce the time it takes to block new threats.
Protect Innocent Eyes
Tablets, smartphones, and computers are no longer the realm of adults. They're used by any child who can be trusted not to drop an iPhone in the toilet. The Parental Control features of the Core let you assign an age group to a particular user. You can then block whole categories of potentially undesirable content, including everything from violence to drugs to pornography. There are also editable black and white lists.
In testing, we assigned Max an age of eight years or younger, and blocked access to all the listed content types included in the app. When Max tried to navigate to pornographic sites, he was blocked and an alert appeared in the Core app. It was less successful blocking other content, like information related to abortion.
One odd thing we noticed was that the Android device Max used in parental control testing was unable to reconnect after leaving the Core network. That's because Google is blocked under the General section, and that somehow conflicted with how the phone connected to Wi-Fi. Representatives from Norton told us this can be resolved by whitelisting Google.com.
Note that because the Core does not decrypt encrypted traffic, Max could use Google Image Search to look up pornographic images. That's because Google uses HTTPS by default. Max also circumvented the parental block by installing and running a VPN on his device.
You can also set a bedtime for a user, a daily time limit for internet use, and a weekend time limit. When the time is up, the Core cuts them off from the web. Alternately, you can use the global or device-specific pause buttons to shut down internet access for family bonding time. You can also shut off internet access for the people you've added via the Core app, which will deactivate the internet connection on all of their assigned devices.
Of course, if your child's device can access the internet through another Wi-Fi network or via cellular connection, the Core can't stop them. Nor can it stop them from accessing restricted content when they're outside the house. If you're very concerned about parental control, we recommend installing standalone software on the devices your children use. Norton Family Premier is available on several platforms, and earned an Editors' Choice in our testing.
How Smart is Your Home, Really?
The Core can quarantine any IoT device that is known to have vulnerabilities, and any device exhibiting unusual traffic patterns. This will protect your home network and prevent your devices from being used without your knowledge, as in the recent Mirai botnet DDoS attack, which weaponized IoT devices without their owners' consent.
When a device connects to the network, you'll immediately get a push notification alert. From there, you can go to the Devices menu to learn more about each individual IoT device (and every other device on the network).
To test it, we connected two robot vacuums, the Samsung Powerbot R7070 and the iRobot Roomba 960. In each case, the Core was able to correctly identify it as home appliance, as well as the manufacturer, model number, operating system, IP address, and MAC address. It was also able to do this for a Google Pixel phone, an iPhone 7, and a Macbook Pro (though it might take it a few minutes to identify each one).
Device identification is critical in order for users to decide whether or not something belongs on the network. In our early testing with the Bitdefender Box, we were disappointed that it struggled to do this. The Core was much quicker, but we think that the app should display the product name above the device name, since that's often more recognizable to users.
While none of our test devices were compromised, the Core should be able to notify you and block internet access to risky devices. This is important, since most smart home devices can't run security software on their own. Plus, IoT companies don't have a stellar track record with building security into their products.
A representative from Norton told us that, over time, the company will be able to develop a more nuanced view of what safe and risky traffic looks like for IoT devices.
Can You Trust the Core?
Security simply doesn't work without trust. The only difference between antivirus and malware is that one is a tool in the hands of a good, trusted company.
The issues of trust are compounded with a device like the Norton Core. It is watching your traffic, and in some cases inspecting the packets that are flowing through your network. Norton does gather some information about how devices and software behave on your network, but that's true for its endpoint software as well. Importantly, the Norton Core privacy policy states, "we will not sell or rent your or your Child's Personal Information to any third parties for marketing purposes." That's important.
Do keep in mind that Norton also states that it will respond to legal requests for information from law enforcement that could include your data, which is also true for the company's other products.
One of the criticisms of the IoT industry is that these devices, while mundane at face value, could be used by attackers to pivot into a secure network. If the Core were to be compromised, the attacker wouldn't just have a privileged position on your network, they would be your network. Thankfully, Norton has taken these concerns to heart, and hired three separate penetrating testing companies to evaluate the Core before it went to market. A representative from Norton told us that the problems it found have already been addressed.
Core Values
While there are other security devices that can meet or (perhaps) exceed the Core's protection, it is wonderfully easy to set up, to the point we marveled that other routers make it so difficult. The Core's traffic monitoring and quarantine abilities are valuable, especially in a home full of smart devices, and its parental control features are more than welcome in a smart house full of children. Equally important are the unlimited licenses for antivirus software that come with the device. It's also, without a doubt, the best-looking router you can buy.
All that excellence needs to be weighed against a relatively high upfront cost and an ongoing subscription fee after the first year. Additionally, as a router, the Core's performance is just average. If you're looking for just a new router, you can undoubtedly find stronger performance at a lower cost. But if you're concerned about securing your smart home, and snagging access to award-winning antivirus protection, the Core is a very good choice. Note, however, that this is a very new category. As such, we are declining to give an Editors' Choice award until we've had the chance to test more devices.
The Norton Core is as stunning as routers come, and it's packed with security and parental control features to protect every device in your home, from PC to smart fridge.
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