The questions buyers actually ask.
Setup, kids' rules, privacy, choosing a model, and price, trial and warranty. Type a word to search.
Parents & families
Can I set different rules for each child's device?+
Yes. Every Shield can pause a single device or set internet hours that end at bedtime. On Shield Edge and Vault, each device can also carry its own SafeSearch, app blocking and app schedules — the kids' devices locked down without touching yours. On Shield Core, SafeSearch and app blocking apply to the whole house at once.
Can I switch off social media at home?+
Yes, for the supported apps and services in Shield's blocking catalog — the major platforms are in the catalog today. Switch a service off for the whole house on any Shield, or for just one child's device on Edge and Vault, and turn it back on whenever you decide. And it holds: apps built to stay online, TikTok and Meta's among them, are closed on their main route and their backup routes, and we re-test the popular apps every month.
Our router said it blocked TikTok and it didn't stick. Why would this?+
Because apps like TikTok and Instagram are built to switch to a backup route the moment the obvious one is blocked, and to reach some servers without asking for their names, so a list of addresses on its own doesn't hold. A Shield closes the main route and the backup routes at the network, through website lookups and its own firewall, for one device (Edge and Vault) or the whole house (every Shield). Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads each have their own switch, and WhatsApp keeps working when the others are off. We test the popular apps every month, and the next update closes any new route. The one-take recording is on the app-blocking page.
Can Shield protect my kids' phones when they're not at home?+
On Shield Vault, yes — it's called Follow-Me Filtering. Each child's phone connects back to your own Shield through a free app, set up by scanning a code. Wherever the phone goes — mobile data, school, a friend's place — its internet comes home through your Shield first, so the same filtering and rules apply. No accounts, and no cloud doing the filtering. Two honest notes: the phone's owner can switch the connection off in the app (your Shield shows when each phone last connected, so you'll know), and if your home internet is down, a phone set to always-protected has no internet until it reconnects. And if your home connection can't accept an incoming connection (Starlink and mobile broadband are the common ones), the phone reaches your Shield through our relay in Australia — end-to-end encrypted, so we can't read your family's browsing.
Does Follow-Me Filtering send my family's browsing through WOMBATS?+
In most homes, no. The phone connects straight back to your own Shield Vault, and nothing passes through us at all. Some home internet connections can't accept an incoming connection because they don't give the home its own public internet address (a public IP) — Starlink and mobile broadband are the common ones. For those homes, the phone reaches your Shield through a WOMBATS relay server in Australia. Everything the relay carries is end-to-end encrypted between the phone and your own Shield — only those two ends hold the keys, so neither the relay nor anyone at WOMBATS can read your family's browsing. What the relay can see is a phone's internet (IP) address and when it is connected, and we don't log that or use it for profiling. Your family's browsing history never leaves your own Shield.
Can I reach my Shield and my files when I'm away from home?+
On Shield Vault, yes — we call it Back to Shield. The same free app that carries Follow-Me puts your phone or laptop back on your home network, so the dashboard opens in a browser and the family's files on Vault's drive open, copy and save the way they do at home. Two honest notes: it runs at your home internet's upload speed: copying files is fine, editing a document live over the connection is slow, and playing video from away isn't supported yet.
Does Shield replace Screen Time or Family Link?+
Keep them — they control things a network can't see, like total screen hours and app installs. The network layer covers what they can't: every device at once, including the TV and the console, with no per-device setup.
Will Shield protect my kids from strangers online?+
Not directly, and we won't pretend otherwise. Grooming and bullying happen inside chats, and Shield deliberately doesn't read anyone's messages — no honest network device can promise that. What Shield does: adult sites in the blocked categories don't load, SafeSearch stays on for the supported search engines, the apps you're not ready for can be switched off, and the internet can end at bedtime. The rest is the conversation.
What does the under-16 social media law mean at home?+
The law regulates the platforms; what happens on the devices in your house was always yours to decide. We wrote a practical, calm guide for parents on exactly that: the under-16 law at home.
Price, trial & warranty
Can I try Shield at home and send it back?+
Yes. Use Shield on your own network for 30 days from delivery. If it isn't right for your home, tell us — we'll email a prepaid return label and refund the full purchase price. The 30-day home trial is for households in Australia and New Zealand, one per household.
Optional paid SSD upgrades on Shield Vault are non-refundable once the upgraded SSD has been provisioned and shipped, except where required by Australian Consumer Law. Read the home-trial conditions.
What's the warranty?+
A 12-month warranty plus Australian Consumer Law. The warranty runs from the date of delivery and covers the Shield itself and its power supply: if either develops a fault that isn't caused by physical damage or misuse, we'll repair or replace it at our cost. It's offered alongside your consumer-law rights, not in place of them. The full warranty — who gives it, how to claim and the Australian Consumer Law statement — is below and on the refund & warranty page.
Given by: Ausbotics Pty Ltd (ABN 24 655 781 150), trading as WOMBATS Shield, Suite 902, 50 Berry Street, North Sydney NSW 2060. Telephone +61 2 3813 7771 (WhatsApp messages; calls go to voicemail). Email support@wombatss.com.
What we promise: If the Shield or its supplied power supply develops a fault that is not caused by physical damage or misuse within 12 months from the date of delivery, we will repair or replace it at our cost. The warranty does not cover damage from misuse, modification, third-party repair, dropping or liquid, or cosmetic wear that does not affect function.
How to claim:
- Within the 12 months, email support@wombatss.com with your order reference, the serial number printed on the underside of your Shield and a short description of the fault — or write to us at the business address below.
- We will troubleshoot with you, or arrange the repair or replacement.
- If the Shield needs to come back to us, we email you a prepaid return label. The return address is Parcel Locker 10126, 13827 296-302 High Street, Penrith NSW 2750.
Costs: We bear the costs of a warranty claim, including return postage. Because we send you a prepaid return label, there is nothing for you to pay and nothing to claim back.
The benefits under this warranty are in addition to other rights and remedies you have under law in relation to the goods.
Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.
How long will my Shield get security updates?+
Every WOMBATS Shield — its hardware and the software it ships with — will receive all available security updates until at least 31 December 2029. We will never bring that date forward. We review it every year and, when we extend it, we publish the new date here. A security update is a software update that protects or improves the security of your Shield. Updates arrive as signed bundles that your Shield checks before applying, and there is no first-party app to keep updated. The date and any extension are recorded on the security page.
What's the founding price?+
Founding prices are $424 AUD, inc GST for Core, $524 for Edge and $724 for Vault; export orders are priced without GST (choose your country on the pricing page). When the founding batch is gone, standard prices apply from unit 21: $574 / $664 / $914, plus $25 delivery in Australia. Founding members keep founding-tier pricing on anything we sell them in future.
Can I pay in instalments?+
Yes, for delivery in Australia and New Zealand. At checkout you can split the payment into 4 interest-free payments of $106.00 a fortnight with Afterpay or PayPal on a $424 Shield Core — or Zip, with weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayments on Zip's terms. Those payments go to Afterpay, PayPal or Zip on their terms; the Shield, the 30-day home trial and the 12-month warranty come from us either way. The total price is identical — splitting it never changes it — and the payments end. Nothing is ever recurring from WOMBATS.
What does "founding price locked in for life" actually mean?+
It is a specific, bounded promise. Founding members — the first 20 numbered Shields — keep founding-level pricing for life on anything WOMBATS sells them in future: any later Shield, model or add-on is offered to them at founding-tier pricing, for as long as we exist. Buyers after unit 20 pay the listed price at the time of their order and do not receive a price lock. This scope is deliberate: the lifetime lock is a thank-you to the people who backed the very first batch, not an open-ended discount for everyone.
How does the price compare to subscription services?+
Most families pay for protection by the month and never total it up. A leading parental-control app is $159.95 a year at Australian pricing — about $480 over three years, $800 over five. An all-in-one US family bundle converts to roughly $576 a year or more, renewing forever. A Shield Core is $424 at the founding price, bought once — less than three years of that single app.
There is no subscription behind these numbers. A Shield keeps filtering in year four and year ten at $0, and it keeps working even if WOMBATS doesn't. The full comparison tables, with the date we checked the prices, are on the Why WOMBATS page. See the full comparison.
Competitor prices are public list prices, checked July 2026; converted figures are approximate.
Why pay upfront when an app lets me cancel monthly?+
Because the risk actually runs the other way. Cancel a subscription after a month and you've paid for that month and own nothing. Send Shield back inside 30 days and you've paid for nothing — we email a prepaid return label and refund the full purchase price. After 30 days the risk has already swapped sides: the subscription keeps charging forever; Shield is finished charging you.
The trial is for households in Australia and New Zealand — one per household, everything comes back, and the tamper seal on the case stays intact (there's nothing inside to set up; everything is done from your browser). Full conditions are on the refund policy page. Read the home-trial conditions.
Where can I see all the prices?+
On the pricing page.
Getting started
Do I need to replace my router?+
No. Shield connects behind your existing modem or router over Ethernet. Your Wi-Fi stays the same. Setup typically takes about 15 minutes from a browser on your home network. If you have Starlink, eero or another router you can only set up in a phone app, talk to us before ordering.
How long does setup actually take?+
Around 15 minutes for most homes — and the fiddly part is automatic. You plug Shield in, join the Wi-Fi network it broadcasts (or open the local setup page from your network), have your modem's admin login handy, and press Detect. Our Modem Autopilot recognises many modems supplied by Australian internet providers, plus the popular retail brands, and applies the right network settings for you. No IP addresses, no DNS, no settings pages to dig through. If Autopilot can't set your modem up by itself, talk to us — Guided Setup walks you through the same changes by hand.
Which modems and routers does Shield work with?+
Shield is designed to fit behind a standard modem or router. We've tested it on real hardware with modems that Telstra, Optus, TPG, iiNet and Vodafone have supplied, and with retail TP-Link and NetComm modems. If your provider sent you a new modem recently, tell us which one you have. Starlink, eero, Google Nest Wifi, Google Wifi and TP-Link Deco are different: they're set up through their own phone app, which Modem Autopilot can't use. Other mesh Wi-Fi systems, double-NAT and ISP-locked routers can need extra steps as well. If you have one of these, or your network setup is unusual, talk to us before ordering.
What if I want to remove Shield or go back to how things were?+
Nothing Shield does is permanent. To protect every device on your network, Shield takes over one job from your modem, handing out network addresses (DHCP). If you ever want to go back, you remove Shield and run a factory reset on your modem, a standard button-press, which hands that job back to the modem. You're then exactly where you started, no lock-in. And households in Australia and New Zealand get the 30-day home trial.
Does it slow down my internet?+
No measurable difference for everyday use. Filtering adds microseconds per lookup — far less than the variance in your connection itself. One deliberate exception: the first visit to a site nobody in your house has been to before can take a blink longer, because your Shield finds the address itself instead of handing the question to a DNS company. That's the privacy trade, and it happens once — after that the answer comes from Shield's own memory. Most households notice pages load slightly faster once ad and tracker requests stop going out.
What happens if my Shield stops working?+
You're never locked out of the internet. Getting back online without us is the same standard step as removing Shield: unplug it and factory-reset your modem — a button-press — and your network is exactly as it was before Shield arrived. Then the 12-month warranty (on top of your Australian Consumer Law rights) covers repair or replacement, and support@wombatss.com reaches the engineers directly.
Protection & filtering
What does Shield protect against?+
Ads and ad networks. Trackers and profiling domains. Phishing and malware domains. Adult and unsafe content categories. SafeSearch enforcement on Google, Bing, YouTube, DuckDuckGo and the other supported search engines. Catalog-based blocking for supported apps and services.
Does it block adult content?+
Yes, for the adult-content categories Shield supports, with SafeSearch enforced on the major search engines (Google, Bing, YouTube, DuckDuckGo and others). As with any DNS-based filter, the result depends on the categories you enable and the devices you manage.
Does it block ads?+
Yes, for the ad and tracking domains in the active filter sources. Some ads served from the same domains as the content itself can't be filtered cleanly at the DNS layer, that's a trade-off any DNS filter shares.
Why do I still see ads inside YouTube videos?+
Because YouTube serves its video ads from the same internet addresses as the videos themselves. No DNS filter on the market can block in-video YouTube ads without breaking YouTube — Shield included — and we'd rather tell you that before you buy than have you discover it after. Shield still blocks ad and tracking domains across the rest of your browsing. One side effect worth knowing: with tracking blocked, YouTube tends to repeat the same generic ads, which can feel like more ads rather than fewer. And if SafeSearch's YouTube option is on, YouTube runs in its Restricted Mode, which also hides comments — that's YouTube's design, not a fault. The YouTube owner guide covers how to tune both.
Does it stop phishing and malware?+
Shield blocks known harmful domains at the DNS layer before connections are made. It is one calm layer of defence, best paired with safe browsing habits, current device updates, and endpoint security where appropriate.
Can someone on my network bypass it?+
Shield blocks common encrypted-DNS bypass paths and Apple Private Relay traffic at the network level. A determined user on a managed device can still use a VPN to tunnel out. What you have is visibility, Shield will show you the device.
Can protection be paused?+
Yes. Per-device pause, filter relaxation, and category exclusion are all available from the local dashboard.
My router already has parental controls — do I need this?+
Check what yours actually does. Most bundled controls are basic allow/block lists tied to a vendor app or an ongoing fee, and the free ones have been disappearing: Telstra removed its free Broadband Protect filter in 2023, and Optus shut WiFi Secure entirely in March 2026. Shield filters every device at once on hardware you own, adds SafeSearch, app blocking, per-device schedules and bypass resistance, stores nothing in anyone's cloud — and has no fee that can lapse.
Privacy
Where does my data live?+
On your network. The dashboard runs on the Shield itself, and so does every filtering decision. There is no vendor cloud control plane sitting between you and the device, and that is the only honest answer to this question I would accept from a product I bought.
— Khalid, Founder, WOMBATS Shield
Does Shield store browsing history?+
No. Shield does not maintain a browsing-history report or behavioural profiling dashboard. AdGuard Home defaults that would have produced these have been disabled or restricted in our build.
Is anything sent to WOMBATS?+
No telemetry. No query logs. No browsing history. Software updates land as signed bundles that the device verifies before applying, that is the only relationship Shield has with us by design. Each update check carries the Shield's version and serial number so we can spot a failed update; you can switch the serial off on the Software Update page. I built it that way because I would not put a device on my own network that had any other relationship with its vendor. The one exception is Follow-Me Filtering on Shield Vault when your internet connection has no public IP address: then a phone reaches your Shield through our relay in Australia, which only routes the connection and is end-to-end encrypted.
— Khalid, Founder, WOMBATS Shield
What still uses the internet?+
Filter list updates, software bundle updates, the lookups for sites you visit, and any support workflow you initiate. At home those lookups go straight to the internet's own address servers, so no DNS company sees your household's browsing; away from home Shield sends them as an encrypted lookup to a provider you choose — Cloudflare by default — so the network you are borrowing can't read the questions. (Encryption hides the questions, not the destinations — any network can still see where traffic ultimately goes.) Nothing about your day-to-day filtering or device management depends on us being online. On Shield Vault, Follow-Me Filtering on a connection with no public IP address also uses our relay in Australia, which only routes the phone's end-to-end encrypted connection.
What if WOMBATS goes away?+
Your Shield keeps working. There is no required activation server, no cloud login, and no subscription that can lapse. The filter lists are public and continue updating without us. If WOMBATS ceased to exist tomorrow, the device would keep doing its job, because it works locally, on hardware you own, with rules you can inspect. Most products in this category cannot make that claim.
— Khalid, Founder, WOMBATS Shield
Models
What's the difference between Core, Edge and Vault?+
Whole-network filtering, SafeSearch, pause and schedules are on every Shield. The difference is how finely you can aim the rules, and what else the box does.
Shield Core
- Ads, trackers, adult content and phishing blocked for every device
- SafeSearch and app blocking for the whole house
- Pause and bedtime hours per device
Shield Edge
- Everything in Core
- Filtering, SafeSearch and app blocking per device
- File sharing and a media library, on a USB drive you supply
- Travel Wi-Fi over a cable
Shield Vault
- Everything in Edge
- A free 256 GB internal SSD, a backup drive for any computer (Time Machine for Macs) — paid upgrades to 1 TB, 2 TB or 4 TB
- Cable-free travel Wi-Fi
- Follow-Me Filtering: your rules on the kids' phones away from home, through a free app
- Back to Shield: your dashboard and the family's files from your phone or laptop, away from home
Vault's built-in drive can be encrypted too, with encryption switched on when you first set up the drive. Full breakdown on the compare page.
Does Jellyfin transcode?+
No. Jellyfin on Shield runs in direct play / direct stream mode only. Very high bitrate 4K media may reduce concurrent stream counts.
Which Shield supports Time Machine?+
Time Machine backup support is a Shield Vault feature. Backups go to its built-in drive, which can be encrypted, with encryption switched on when you first set up the drive.
Can I upgrade the SSD on Vault?+
Yes, Vault ships with a 256 GB SSD, with optional 1 TB, 2 TB or 4 TB upgrades. During the founding batch we confirm the upgrade by email after your order so every Vault is built to spec.
How does travel Wi-Fi work?+
Shield Edge and Shield Vault can both take your home filtering on holiday. Every Shield broadcasts its own WOMBATS Wi-Fi, so at a holiday stay you give Shield an internet uplink and your own filtered network appears: Edge plugs into the accommodation's router with an Ethernet cable; Vault can also join the accommodation's wireless — even networks with a login page — no cable needed. Any device that joins your WOMBATS Wi-Fi gets the same filtering you have at home. Step-by-step in the travel Wi-Fi guide.
Capacity
How many devices can each Shield handle?+
Shield Core is comfortable with 20–40 connected browsing/phone/tablet/IoT devices. Shield Edge is comfortable with 15–25 browsing devices, three combined direct-play streams, and two SMB transfers. Shield Vault is comfortable with 15–25 browsing devices, three combined streams, 1–2 Time Machine backups, two SMB transfers, and 15–25 Wi-Fi AP clients. These are comfort targets, not benchmark maxima.
Founding edition
What is the Founding Edition?+
The first 20 Shields. Founding members get founding pricing locked in for life across our line, a numbered card in the box, a direct line to the engineers, and an invitation to the founding-members community.
Why a limited founding batch?+
Because we are small on purpose, and the first batch is hand-fulfilled. I would rather build a small, durable company with people who care about the same things we do, than a big one in a hurry. The founding batch is how we find the first 20 of those people.
— Khalid, Founder, WOMBATS Shield
Founding Edition
Order a Shield from the founding batch.
Founding price locked in for life. No subscriptions.
Already own a Shield? Step-by-step owner guides