A private library on your network
Edge and Vault add SMB file sharing, Jellyfin direct play and DLNA. Your media stays in the house.
Founding Edition · First 20 Shields
Take your home network back.
One small box behind your modem. Network protection, a private media library, encrypted backups for your computers and a travel Wi-Fi router, all on your own network, never in someone else's cloud.
Ads on the smart TV. Adult sites the kids shouldn't be on. Trackers following the kids around the web. Phishing emails pretending to be the bank. WOMBATS Shield sits behind your modem and quietly blocks the lot for every phone, laptop, tablet, TV and smart speaker on your network. If you want more, the same Shield family adds a private media library, encrypted backups for the computers in the house, and a travel Wi-Fi network you can take on holiday. No app to install on each device. No subscription. Nothing about your home leaves your home.
From $449. Buy once. Founding price locked in for life.
Free AU/NZ dispatch · GST inclusive · 30-day return · International by Express courier.
Plugs in behind your modem
Protects every device
No app, no subscription
Nothing leaves your home
What Shield does
A small appliance that quietly does more than blocking.
Network protection is the foundation. The Shield family also adds a private media library, encrypted backups for the computers in your house, and a travel Wi-Fi network you can take on holiday. None of it goes through anyone else's cloud.
Stream without an account
Compatible TVs and players see your library locally. No cloud login. No catalog telemetry.
Backups that stay home
Encrypted local storage that any computer in the house can back up to over SMB, with first-class Time Machine support for Macs. Backups never leave your network.
A travel router in your bag
Vault Wi-Fi access point mode gives you a calm, filtered Wi-Fi network in hotels and Airbnbs.
What you'll notice
The difference, in the first week.
Some of it is obvious on day one. Some of it is invisible by design, a phishing page you never reach doesn't announce itself, so the dashboard keeps the count for you.
The TV, minus the ads
Ads disappear in places you could never block them before, the smart TV, free games, cheap apps.
Lighter, quicker pages
Fewer pop-ups and trackers, so everyday browsing feels cleaner and loads a little faster.
A number that makes it real
The dashboard shows how many ads, trackers and threats Shield blocked. Worth a look on day two.
Quieter for the kids
Adult content doesn't load, SafeSearch stays on, and you can pause a device at dinner from your phone.
Why this exists
Most home networks have quietly become someone else's territory.
The router phones home to a vendor cloud. The “protection” is a subscription that watches the same traffic it claims to protect. The data drifts off the property. We built Shield because we wanted the thing on our own networks, and we couldn't find one we trusted.
Shield is a small, calm appliance that takes care of filtering, parental controls, ad, tracker and adult-content blocking, and (if you want it) private storage, media, backups and travel Wi‑Fi. Then it stays quiet. Buy it once. Own it. Keep it for years.
Read the long versionA different approach
Everything starts on your network.
- No vendor cloud control plane
- No traffic profiling, ever
- No remote management backdoor
- Filter lists update over the internet, control does not
How it fits
Sits behind your modem. Wi-Fi stays the same.
Shield connects to your existing modem over Ethernet. Your phones, laptops and TVs keep using the Wi-Fi they already use. Setup is a 15-minute conversation with a friendly browser page on your home network.
Live, on your network
See exactly what Shield is doing, quietly.
No telemetry leaves your house. The dashboard runs on Shield itself, on your network. Pause a device, exclude a category, or just leave it alone for months.
At a glance
Today's blocks across every device, in one quiet view.
Each device, on its own terms
Pause the kids' iPad without touching the rest of the house.
Tune protection to your household
Choose what to filter, and what to leave alone.
Don't take our word for it.
Run a third-party check before and after you plug Shield in. Results may vary depending on your network.
Modem Autopilot
It recognises your modem and sets itself up.
No terminal, no DNS, no settings pages. Plug Shield in, press one button, and Modem Autopilot recognises your modem and configures protection for you — usually in a couple of minutes, with nothing to look up or type in. Brought your own modem? It probably just works; and if it's not recognised yet, send it to us in one tap and we'll add it.
Works with the modems in most Australian homes
From every major Australian internet provider, plus the popular retail brands — more than 40 models recognised today, and the list grows every week.
Providers
TelstraOptusTPGiiNetInternodeAussie BroadbandBelongVodafoneDodoiPrimusMateSuperloopExetelSpintel
Modem brands
TP-LinkNetgearASUSD-LinkHuaweiSagemcomNetCommTechnicolorNokiaZTEArcadyanSercomm
Powered by the WOMBATS Universal Modem Engine.
Pick your Shield
Three Shields. One simple choice.
All three Shields share the same calm, local-first foundation. Edge and Vault add storage, media and travel features.
Shield Core
Quiet, network-wide protection.
$449$559
For most homes
- Ad, tracker, adult-content and threat blocking for every device
- SafeSearch and per-device controls
- Local web management. No cloud login
Shield Edge
Core + a private media library.
$549$689
For media-heavy households
- Everything in Core
- SMB file sharing across the household
- Jellyfin direct play and DLNA
Shield Vault
Edge + encrypted backups + travel Wi-Fi.
$749$939
For prosumers & frequent travellers
- Everything in Edge
- Encrypted SSD with Time Machine support
- Vault-only Wi-Fi access point for travel
A note from the founder
Built by someone who wanted it on his own network.
I'm an electronics engineer who started using computers in the late 1980s and wrote my first program in 1990. WOMBATS Shield is the device I wanted in my own house, a small piece of equipment that protects every device on the network from one place, on hardware you own, with rules you can read for yourself. No account. No subscription. No cloud.
Khalid · Founder, WOMBATS Shield
Read the full storyIn the box
A piece of hardware you'll keep on your shelf.
The first thing you'll notice is the box.
Open and ready in minutes.
Shield, power, Ethernet, founding card.
A promise that matters
If we disappear, your Shield keeps working.
There is no required activation server. No cloud login that can be turned off. No subscription that lapses. A big vendor can switch a device off from its cloud; Shield has no such switch to flip. The filter lists Shield uses are public and continue updating without us. The only thing you lose if WOMBATS as a company goes away is us, not your network.
That's the whole pitch. Everything else on this page is detail.
- No required cloud login
- No activation server
- No vendor-controlled DNS path
- Public filter lists keep updating
- Local UI keeps running, forever
Common questions
The questions buyers ask before they reserve.
Where does my data live?+
On your network. Filtering and management run on the Shield itself. There is no vendor cloud control plane and no telemetry pipeline back to us.
What if WOMBATS goes away?+
Your Shield keeps working. There is no required activation server, no cloud login, and no monthly fee. Filter lists are public and can keep updating without us.
Will it work behind my modem?+
Yes. Shield connects behind your existing modem over Ethernet. Your Wi-Fi stays the same. Setup typically takes about 15 minutes from a browser on your home network.
Can someone on my network bypass it?+
Shield blocks common encrypted-DNS bypass paths and Apple Private Relay at the network level. A determined user on a managed device can still tunnel out. You'll see them.
What if I want to remove it?+
Nothing Shield does is permanent. To protect every device, it takes over one job from your modem, handing out network addresses. To go back, you remove Shield and factory-reset your modem, a standard button-press, and you're exactly where you started. No lock-in, and every Shield has a 30-day return.
Does it slow down my internet?+
No measurable difference for everyday use. DNS filtering adds microseconds per lookup — far less than the variance in your internet connection itself. Most households notice pages load slightly faster once ad and tracker requests stop going out.
Founding Edition · 20 Shields
Reserve your founding Shield.
One simple choice. One device. One quiet network. Founding price locked in for life.