Winston Privacy Reviews 192

I was a fairly early adopter of Winston, waited patiently for a much delayed UK delivery and got it all working once it had finally arrived.

Sadly it looks as though the company has gone bust and the product won't be supported after July 2021.

This is the final section of an email received from them today:

"Unfortunately, we were unable to generate sufficient demand with consumers to support a hardware business and have no choice but to discontinue the Winston Privacy service. This was a difficult decision to make as many of invested years of our lives in this mission. We did - and still do - feel passionately that everyone should have the ability to make meaningful choices about their family's privacy.

A final firmware update (1.5.14) will be pushed in late June/July which will enable devices to run without requiring a subscription. Please note that devices must be connected to the internet during this time period to receive this update. Units which have been updated should continue to operate normally through the end of the year though support will no longer be offered. Devices may continue to operate beyond the end of 2021, however the security certificate for the domain api.winstonprivacy.com will eventually expire and will need to be manually whitelisted in your browser.

We encourage you to support businesses that put their users' privacy first. A few of the companies we recommend include:

* DuckDuckGo
* ProtonMail
* Signal
* Brave

Thank you for your support throughout the years.

The Winston Privacy Team"

After a bumpy start (the Winston device wouldn't connect to the internet and after several different suggestions from their website, still wouldn't connect) and a couple of responses from the support department, we were able to connect and figure out the problem. I don't know who I talked to but he was friendly, patient and most important, knowledgeable about the product. He suggested a setup not mentioned on their troubleshooting web page that worked.

I have had it running since Monday May 3, 2021 and have been very surprised at how much crap is tracking me and my family: over 17,000 threats blocked and almost a gig of data saved. There's a LOT less ads too. That's in three days! I don't use any VPNs just because you're not able to protect anymore than the computer it's installed on. Winston solves that problem.

I installed the app on my phone that protects it as well, which it does. The only thing that I thought it was supposed to do is disconnect when I'm using my home wifi network and reconnect when I'm outside of it. It stays connected when I'm using my wifi network. It seems to work so that all that really matters.

I just hope that the Winston device lasts for years.

This has definitely removed a LOT of ads and made things more secure. That said on the rare few occasions that I've had issues the tech support was pleasantly quick. Only "caveat" you should be aware of is that if there is a problem you should know how to navigate the dashboard to possibly troubleshoot - and this takes a bit of time.

Bought a Winston unit back in October 2020 and I was impressed with the product and it worked very well for 5 months. However, the unit began to malfunction and would not perform as to specifications and would go constantly "off line". Disconnected the entire unit and reinstalled it as per Winston service support. This went on for several days and there was no resolution to the problem. Winston only provide a 30 day warranty and was not interested in my unit. I went back to my old reliable VPN and considered my $119.88 investment with Winston a total loss and lesson learned.

I've had Winston for about 2 weeks. I'm pretty tech savvy so the setup and install was a piece of cake. Done in about 10 mins.

You need to watch sites for any compatibility issues but the pre-set modules from Winston make the key ones easy peasy. I whitelisted work and have had no problems anywhere else.

I highly recommend!!!! BUY IT NOW!

Delivery: A. I received my unit in early December (arrived in three days).

Unboxing: A+. Really attractive packaging and the quality stands out. This is not cheap overseas junk. The unit arrived with a kickstand, two flat ethernet cables and a power adapter.

Enclosure: A+. High quality metal of some sort (polished aluminum maybe). The kickstand appears to be removable with some force but I kept mine attached. The ports are kind of difficult to reach. I don't think the unit would be able to stand up on its own with traditional round cables. In future versions, I would like to see the ports mounted flush on the back of the unit.

Installation: B+. I installed in between a typical Arris modem and TP-Link router following the instructions on their setup website. The website paused for a little while as it was updating firmware. They give you the choice of selecting high-compatibility settings out of the gate or more aggressive ones. I chose the more aggressive ones to see what would happen. I also turned on the privacy mesh network because I wanted to see how much speed would be impacted.

I didn't give them an A because I felt setup could be simpler.

Dashboard: A. The dashboard defaults to a view which shows you how many requests have been blocked since installation but I prefer the more advanced dashboard available from the nav menu. After a few minutes, it began to show data.

Two things really stood out for me. First is the live view, which shows you a real-time stream of the requests being attempted on your network and what action the device is taking. It consistently blocks a satisfying amount of trackers, analytics, and especially Facebook/Instagram requests.

Second is the Privacy Mesh report (strangely, the nav menu name doesn't match the report title "connected peers"). This shows the general locations of other units you are connected to at the time.

Speed: B+. It is fast. I see little difference in my native ISP speeds on speed test and pages typically load a lot faster. I noticed some especially spammy sites experience some pauses during the initial load as they are waiting to connect to tracking services. I am ok with that. Maybe if I switch to high-compatibility mode this would improve but I prefer the the extra privacy.

Also, it took about 30 minutes for me to establish a decent connection to the network. I'm not sure why but it's been stable since.

Compatibility: B. Most ads on my network are gone. One exception is on streaming sites - it does not block them but I think the frequency of ads has gone down quite a bit, especially on Youtube. Mobile popups are a thing of the past and there are very few ads in mobile apps.

One gotcha - make sure you install the "optional" web extension for Chrome (or Firefox). I use quotes because if you pick aggressive blocking, you are going to have a bad time when you visit some sites and there's no alternative easy way to whitelist them. The extension has a nice feature that lets you set the amount of time a website is whitelisted for as well.

The other thing to be aware of is that there are compatibility modules which you can select during setup or from the dashboard. Some people might not like this feature but I love it. There are tons of services that I would rather not share my data with (Facebook, Microsoft Windows) unless I explicitly allow it and the modules make this super easy. A casual user might have some trouble with this.

Overall: A. Despite a few little gotchas, this is a great device that does exactly what I want it to.

I am very pleased with Winston so far. I did have some minor difficulty activating my service but, I contacted support and received fast, efficient, and friendly service which fixed my problem immediately. In addition, this product is very easy to configure and put to use.
I have been using Winston for about 4 weeks now.
Once in place, minimal attention is required and the average user should appreciate the peace of mind that comes with knowing that Winston is in charge of protecting privacy.
I would definitely recommend this product, especially for those who would consider themselves less tech savvy.

I Have had this for a few weeks. So far, so good. Very happy with my Winston.

So easy, so private, so good! I been using two devices, one for home and one for traveling with complete confidence. Needed a little assistance setting up my all in one router and support was friendly, smart and fast. What else can you ask for? Thank you, Winston!

WOW! Based on a friends recommendation I purchased my Winston and was amazed at how simple and easy it was to set up. Such a powerful privacy system in a small box. Proving once again great things come in small packages. WTG Winston Team!

While I’m familiar with tech, doing all that Winston does by simply plugging a box into my router is a lot simpler than managing multiple software programs. Work as advertised, speeds throughput, and easy to manage. I highly recommend.

I'm not overly tech savvy, but do appreciate the importance of privacy especially after watching The Social Dilemma.

Winston was super easy to set up, and the dashboard reinforces the value of the service to see just how many websites are attempting to track our usage. The data saved metric and faster connectivity are reassuring features.

It's funny when I now get prompts that my network is blocking ads and a popup from Admiral software shows up to complain about it.

I found the Winston device and software to be powerful and easy to work with. It does an excellent job of screening tracking software and reducing adds. It also allows you to move about the internet without being stalked by big tech. I have recommended they add a technical overview video and a main link to their videos to improve the customer experience.

Winston delivers on what it promised. Very easy set up, detailed dashboard and comprehensive reports. I recommend more detailed tutorials on how to maximize the benefits of the product. I recommend it to my friends.

I have been very impressed with Winston. I have now set up Winston at home, my office, and in our short term rental unit. All are functioning great!

I recently purchased Winston Privacy after deciding that I needed to do more to protect myself while online. I have been using Winston for several weeks. The level of detail the service provides is unmatched and you see instant results while online. If you are looking to protect your identity and you are in the market for something amazing - BUY WINSTON PRIVACY. You will not be disappointed.

great product so far
this is brand new and still figuring out the nuances
great support

I am so ecstatic about this device. I literally have bee getting even better sleep, knowing that this device is keeping my families privacy safe. I LOVE THIS DEVICE! Thank you for providing this amazing equipment. I knew I wanted it, I had no ideal, just how bad, that I need this device in my life. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, SO MUCH!

A good add-on, like a security camera system to your home.

I am shocked by the number of tracking attempts blocked by Winston daily. I had no idea. It is so nice to surf without ads, and the privacy mesh network works nicely. Setup was a breeze. I don't think it can get any easier. Leaving my home wifi was unpleasant until I enabled mobile protection via the app. VPN no longer needed.