PorchLights: Network-Wide Scam Protection for Your Parents House (No Subscription, No Apps)
A bank call almost cost my mom thousands of dollars. She will never learn to spot a fake "bank representative" over WhatsApp, and I have stopped pretending she should. PorchLights is the device I built so my parents' whole house — phone, laptop, TV — is protected from phishing and scam sites without apps, subscriptions, or training. It costs $79 one-time (₹1,999 in India), runs two small AI models on the device, and is MIT-licensed.
TL;DR
- What it is: A small box that plugs in next to your router and blocks phishing and scam websites for every device on the home network.
- How it works: Two tiny AI models (PhishScout for scams, AdVig for ads) score every site address at the router in about a millisecond. Nothing leaves the house.
- What it costs: $79 one-time worldwide (₹1,999 in India). No subscription. No per-device fee. No "trial expired".
- Who it's for: Anyone whose parents, in-laws, or older relatives keep almost falling for phishing texts, fake bank calls, or "your package was delayed" links — especially from another city where you can't be their tech support.
- Where to get it: porchlights.store — first 50 homes on the waitlist get a launch price and first dibs on the first batch.
The problem: scammers aren't after tech-savvy people. They're after Mom
Three signals from the communities where families actually ask for help:
- Fake bank texts are now "almost indistinguishable from the real thing." They show up on the one phone Mom actually reads. — r/cybersecurity_help, 2026
- Training doesn't stick. "He still fell for one — an iPhone for $1." You cannot lecture away a lifetime of clicking, especially from another city. — r/cybersecurity
- Per-device fixes get uninstalled. "I got my parents a Pi-hole… 6 months later, mom was cleaning and threw the little box away." — r/pihole
Parents do not need more lessons. They need infrastructure.
What PorchLights is
PorchLights is a soft-pebble device about the size of a phone charger. Plug it in next to the router, point your router's DNS at it using the included QR card, and every device in the house — phone, laptop, TV, tablet, gaming console — is covered. One green light, nothing on screen, nothing to remember.
The package includes:
- The device (one green status light, no buttons in the normal case)
- A BIS-certified USB charger (India-first)
- A USB-C cable, ~1 m
- A QR setup card + a 2-minute setup video
There is no app to install on Mom's phone. There is no account to register. There is no subscription to renew.
How it works (in plain English)
Every time a device in your home asks to open a website, the request briefly visits PorchLights first. Two small AI models inside the box — PhishScout for scams and AdVig for ads and trackers — score the address of the site in about a millisecond. If it looks like a phishing page or an ad/tracker domain, PorchLights blocks it and the browser shows a quiet "this site was blocked" page. Everything else flows through, untouched.
| Model | Job | Lookup time |
|---|---|---|
| PhishScout | Detect phishing and scam sites | ~4 ms |
| AdVig | Detect ad and tracking domains | ~1 ms |
| Combined footprint | Both models on-device | ~100 KB total |
Measured on-device at 160 MHz on the production firmware (v0.3a). Published PhishScout precision: ~90% on the Hugging Face model card.
What PorchLights blocks
- Fake bank logins (fake ICICI, fake SBI, fake "secure-paypal-login-…" pages)
- "Your package was delayed" SMS links
- Fake billing pages impersonating Netflix, Apple, ICICI, Airtel
- Credential-harvesting links sent by text, email, or QR code
- Most ad and tracking domains (doubleclick, taboola, and similar)
What PorchLights never touches
- Your browsing history (there is none — see the privacy section below)
- Legitimate streaming, banking, or shopping sites
- Any data leaving the house
If something ever misbehaves, you can press Pause for 5 minutes from your phone. Zero drama, no admin console.
Setup: 2 minutes, once
The setup is the part most home network gadgets get wrong. PorchLights is designed so you can do it from your phone before you even leave your parents' house.
- Plug it in next to the router, into the included BIS-certified charger. The green light comes on.
- Connect from your phone by joining the
PorchLights-SetupWiFi the device broadcasts. About 30 seconds. No passwords, no app. - Pick your home WiFi in the setup page. Enter its password. PorchLights joins your network.
- One router setting (2 minutes, once): Point your router's DNS at PorchLights using the QR card and the 2-minute video. After that, every device in the house is covered automatically.
That router step is the one unavoidable part — the same as any Pi-hole — but it is a QR card and a short video instead of a weekend project. And once it is done, nothing on the user side ever changes.
PorchLights vs Pi-hole vs NextDNS vs Firewalla
The honest comparison, using public competitor pricing from August 2026:
| Instead of… | That costs you | PorchLights |
|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi | A Pi, an SD card, an admin console, and sites that quietly break | Pre-flashed, on-device AI — nothing to maintain |
| NextDNS / AdGuard DNS | $20+/yr forever, and every query leaves your house | One-time price, checks happen on the device |
| Firewalla | $319+ — a firewall when you actually need scam-blocking | Under $100, one job, done well |
| PuriFi (turnkey Pi-hole) | $109–$199, still blocklist-based | Model-based — no lists to grow, fewer false blocks |
Why AI beats blocklists for scams
Blocklists are lists of known-bad domains. They work great for ads, badly for scams.
- Blocklists go stale. Scam domains are registered and burned in hours, not days. By the time a list catches up, the scammer has moved on.
- Blocklists break legitimate sites. Shared hosting, CDNs, and short-URL services frequently get caught in the net, which is why Pi-hole users spend weekends whitelisting.
- Blocklists cannot generalize. A new phishing template on a fresh
.topdomain is invisible to a list-based filter.
PhishScout scores the address itself — its structure, its lexical tricks, its relationship to known brand patterns — so it catches new scam domains on the day they appear, not the week after. That is the whole point of running a model at the edge instead of pulling from a list.
Privacy and trust
This is the section most families actually care about.
Local-first by design
PhishScout and AdVig run entirely on the PorchLights device. There is no cloud account, no remote lookup, no "we'll store your browsing to make the product better." The check happens at the router, in milliseconds, and that's it. Nothing about your family's browsing leaves the house.
Pay once, own forever
No subscription. No "trial expired". No per-device fee. Every core feature — stats, allow/deny lists, pause, strictness — is local and free forever.
Open source, backed by a human
Network gadgets have burned families before. (Yes, Fingbox.) PorchLights is the opposite:
- MIT-licensed firmware
- Both AI models public on Hugging Face under saidutta69/PhishScout and saidutta69/AdVig
- Firmware is designed to be updatable on-device
- Support is a real person who answers email at contact@sdad.pro
Trust is earned. We are building for that.
Why I built this
"My own mom almost wired money to a fake 'bank rep' over the phone. She will never learn to spot a subdomain trick — and I've stopped pretending she should. PorchLights exists so protection doesn't depend on anyone getting lucky."
— the founder, Abhishek Dash
I am a security engineer who has shipped LLM gateways, code-security agents, and self-hosted systems for years. I know what good network protection looks like, and I also know that almost none of it survives contact with a parent who just wants to read her messages. PorchLights is what I built when the usual advice — "just train them" — stopped being honest.
Pricing and shipping
| Price | $79 one-time worldwide · ₹1,999 in India |
| Includes | Device, BIS-certified charger (India), USB-C cable, QR setup card, 2-minute setup video |
| Subscription | None. Pay once. Own forever. |
| Returns | If it doesn't protect your family, send it back — no questions. |
| Shipping | First batch ships soon, India-first |
| Launch offer | First 50 homes on the waitlist get a launch price and first dibs |
Join the waitlist at porchlights.store — no spam, only PorchLights news, unsubscribe anytime.
FAQ
Is this for non-technical families?
Yes. If you can join a WiFi network from your phone, you can set up PorchLights. After the one-time router step, it runs itself.
Will it break Netflix, Disney+ or banking?
No. PorchLights uses two small AI models, not giant blocklists. Streaming, banking, and shopping keep working. If anything ever misbehaves, you can pause protection for 5 minutes from your phone.
What about 5 GHz Wi-Fi?
The first batch joins 2.4 GHz networks (most homes). If your router is 5 GHz-only, this batch will not work — a 5 GHz version is on the roadmap. Email us at your home if you are not sure.
My ISP router won't let me change DNS.
A few ISP routers block it. The QR card covers the common ones, and if yours is not in the guide, we will help with that one step personally — it is the only step where humans should be in the loop.
Another gadget that gets abandoned?
Fair — and the reason PorchLights is different. MIT open source. Both models are public on Hugging Face. Firmware is designed to be updatable. Support is a human who answers email. Trust is earned, and we are building for that.
When does it ship?
We are shipping a small first batch soon — orders from the waitlist get first dibs. You will get an email before anyone else when units are ready.
Can I see what it blocked?
Yes — a local dashboard shows what got blocked and lets you allow/block specific sites, adjust strictness, and pause protection. A remote dashboard ("see what got blocked at Mom's house from another city") is on the roadmap.
If you know another family tech-support person, forward them porchlights.store — that is the whole go-to-market.
PorchLights is made in India, MIT-licensed, and ships first to Indian homes. Founder: Abhishek Dash. Contact: contact@sdad.pro.
Frequently asked questions
What is PorchLights?
PorchLights is a small device that plugs in next to your router and blocks phishing and scam websites for every device in the home (phone, laptop, TV). It uses two tiny on-device AI models (PhishScout for scams, AdVig for ads and trackers) and costs $79 (₹1,999 in India) one-time. No subscription, no apps on any device, no account, no cloud.
How is PorchLights different from Pi-hole?
Pi-hole blocks ads using large, manually maintained blocklists that go stale and break sites. It also requires a Raspberry Pi, an SD card, and ongoing admin console management. PorchLights uses two small AI models that score each site's address at request time, so streaming, banking, and shopping keep working and there are no lists to maintain.
Will PorchLights break Netflix, banking, or shopping sites?
No. PorchLights filters with two small AI models instead of giant blocklists. Streaming, banking, and shopping sites keep working, and if anything ever misbehaves you can pause protection for 5 minutes from your phone.
Does PorchLights need a subscription?
No. You pay once ($79 worldwide, ₹1,999 in India) and own it forever. All core features — stats, allow/deny lists, pause, strictness — are local and free forever. There is no per-device fee and no "trial expired" nag.
Where does my family's data go?
Nowhere. Both PhishScout and AdVig run entirely on the PorchLights device. There is no cloud account, no remote lookup, and nothing about your family's browsing leaves the house. It is a local-first design verified by the open-source model cards on Hugging Face.
How long does setup take?
About 2 minutes, once. Setup is three steps: plug it in next to the router, join the PorchLights-Setup WiFi from your phone and pick your home network, then change one DNS setting on your router using the QR card and 2-minute video. After that every device in the house is covered automatically.
Do I need to install anything on Mom's phone?
No. PorchLights protects every device at the router level — that is the whole point. Nothing to install, nothing to forget, nothing to update on individual phones, laptops, or TVs.
What scams does PorchLights actually block?
PhishScout catches fake bank logins, "your package was delayed" SMS links, fake billing pages (Netflix, Apple, ICICI), and credential- harvesting links sent by text, email, or QR code. AdVig catches most ad and tracking domains (doubleclick, taboola, etc.). It is not a firewall or antivirus — it is a focused scam and ad filter.
Is PorchLights open source?
Yes. The firmware is MIT-licensed and both AI models (PhishScout and AdVig) are public on Hugging Face under saidutta69. The hardware is designed to be updatable and a real person answers email at contact@sdad.pro.
When does PorchLights ship?
A small first batch ships soon — India-first. The first 50 homes on the waitlist get a launch price and first dibs on units. Joining the waitlist at porchlights.store puts you in that queue.