File 001 · PorchLights · opened under one lamp
Your parents can't be trained to spot scams. So we protect their whole house instead.
PorchLights is a tiny device that plugs in next to the router and blocks phishing and scam websites for every device in the home — the phone, the laptop, the TV. No apps. No account. No subscription. And no training sessions.
Three lines from the filter's own log — firmware v0.3a
- secure-paypal-login-… PhishScout Blocked ~4 ms
- doubleclick.net AdVig Ad ~1 ms
- fonts.googleapis.com AdVig Missed ~1 ms
The third line is our own miss, written down rather than left out. The whole register follows.
Scammers aren't after tech-savvy people. They're after Mom.
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The scams got good
Fake bank texts and emails are now "almost indistinguishable from the real thing" — and they show up on a phone Mom actually reads.
— r/cybersecurity_help, 2026
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Training doesn't work
"He still fell for one — an iPhone for $1." You cannot lecture a lifetime of clicking away, especially from another city.
— r/cybersecurity
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The fixes need a sysadmin
Pi-hole means a Raspberry Pi, an SD card and an admin console. Security apps get uninstalled. "Per-device isn't the answer."
— r/cybersecurity_help
Parents don't need more lessons. They need infrastructure.
Meet PorchLights
PorchLights is a small, quiet device that sits beside the router and watches every website address the house asks for. Two tiny AI models inside — PhishScout for scams, AdVig for ads and trackers — check each one in about a millisecond and quietly block the bad ones. Everything else flows through, untouched.
- The device Soft pebble case, one green light.
- Certified charger BIS-certified in India. Plug in anywhere.
- USB cable USB-C, ≈1m, included.
- QR setup card + 2-min video The one router step, on one card.
Setup: two steps on your phone, one on the router. Once.
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Plug it in
Next to the router, into any USB charger. The green light comes on.
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Connect from your phone
Join the
PorchLights-SetupWiFi it broadcasts. ~30 seconds. No passwords, no app. -
Pick your home WiFi
Tap your network, enter its password, done. PorchLights connects and starts protecting.
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One router setting (2 minutes, once)
Point your router's DNS at PorchLights using the QR card + video. After that, every device in the house is covered.
Said plainly That router step is the one unavoidable part — the same as any Pi-hole, but we make it a QR card and a 2-minute video instead of a weekend project.
Every address the house asks for gets written down.
This is what the filter actually does, and what it actually cost. Each row is a lookup: two small models read the address, one of them speaks, and the answer is written on the line. The right-hand column is the measured time.
- secure-paypal-login-… PhishScout Blocked ~4 ms
- [ "Your package was delayed" link ] PhishScout Blocked ~4 ms
- [ fake ICICI / Netflix billing page ] PhishScout Blocked ~4 ms
- doubleclick.net AdVig Ad & tracking ~1 ms
- taboola.com AdVig Ad & tracking ~1 ms
- fonts.googleapis.com AdVig Missed ~1 ms Scored 0.4774 against a 0.4774 cutoff — a font domain, blocked on the boundary. A genuine miss, and the only known false positive in v0.3a: threshold tuning and a built-in allowlist land in v0.3b.
- netflix.com Neither Passed through —
- disneyplus.com Neither Passed through —
- icici.com Neither Passed through —
Latency and size from on-device testing of firmware v0.3a, measured at 160 MHz; precision from the published PhishScout model card. Addresses in square brackets were described rather than recorded, so no per-domain score is published for them. And the one row marked Missed is written down here rather than quietly left out.
- 90% PhishScout precision — scams caught without false alarms
- ~100 KB of AI in total — both models together
- 100% on-device — no cloud, no account, no subscription
Scams blocked. Ads blocked. Netflix safe.
PorchLights doesn't use giant blocklists that quietly break websites. Two tiny AI models check the address of every site — PhishScout catches scams, AdVig catches most ads and trackers — so banking, Disney+, and online shopping keep working.
PorchLights blocks
- Fake bank logins
- "Your package was delayed" links
- Fake billing pages (Netflix, Apple, ICICI)
- Credential-harvesting links
- Most ad and tracking domains (doubleclick, taboola, …)
PorchLights never touches
- Your browsing history
- Your data — nothing leaves the house
- Legitimate streaming, banking or shopping sites
And if something ever misbehaves — press Pause for 5 minutes. Zero drama, no admin console.
Why not just …?
| Instead of… | That costs you | PorchLights |
|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi | A Pi, an SD card, an admin console, and sites that break | Pre-flashed, on-device AI, nothing to maintain |
| NextDNS / AdGuard DNS | $20+/yr, forever, and queries leave the house | One-time price, checks happen on the device |
| Firewalla | $319+ — a firewall when you 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 |
Competitor pricing from public listings, Aug 2026. The fuller sheet — including when Pi-hole is the better buy — is on the comparison page.
Real words from the communities we serve
"pi-hole is a good setup but my parents aren't super technical and i don't live nearby to manage it… looking for something that works out of the box."
"per-device isn't the answer."
"I got my parents a pi hole for a present… 6 months later, mom was cleaning… she removed a little box near the router and threw it away."
This is exactly why PorchLights is set-and-forget: one box, one green light, nothing for anyone to clean up or manage.
Your family's data stays home.
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Local-first
PhishScout and AdVig run entirely on the device. There's no cloud account, no "we'll store your browsing" — the check happens at the router, in milliseconds, and that's it.
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Pay once. Own it forever.
No subscription, no "trial expired", no per-device fee. Every core feature — stats, allow/deny lists, pause — is local and free forever.
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Open source. Backed by a human.
Network gadgets have burned families before — yes, Fingbox. PorchLights is the opposite: MIT-licensed, both models public on Hugging Face, built to be updatable, and a real person answers email.
A bank call almost got Mom. So I built the thing that should have been there.
"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."
One price. Every device. No subscription.
A one-time price — for the whole world. Includes the certified charger, USB cable, and the QR + 2-minute setup video. First batch ships India-first.
- The device $79
- Certified charger, USB-C cable, QR setup card + video included
- Subscription, per year, forever ₹0 · $0
- In India ₹1,999 one-time
The first 50 homes get a launch price. Join the waitlist to reserve yours. If it doesn't protect your family, send it back — no questions.
Questions, answered honestly
If you can join a WiFi network from your phone, you can set up PorchLights — it's two steps on your phone and one 2-minute router setting, guided by a QR card and a video. After that, it runs itself.
Pi-hole blocks ads using giant lists that grow stale and break sites. PorchLights runs two small AI models that score each site's address and block only scams plus most ad and tracking domains. No lists to maintain, no admin console, nothing to break.
No — PorchLights filters with two small AI models, not giant blocklists, so streaming, banking and shopping keep working. It blocks scam-looking websites plus most ad and tracking domains. And if anything ever misbehaves, you can pause protection for 5 minutes from your phone.
No. You pay once. All core features — stats, allow/deny lists, pause, strictness — are local and free forever.
Nowhere. The models run on the device. There's no cloud account and nothing leaves the house.
The first batch joins 2.4 GHz networks (most homes). If your router is 5 GHz-only, this batch won't work — a 5 GHz version is on the roadmap. Message us if you're not sure.
A few ISP routers block it. The QR card covers the common ones, and if yours isn't in the guide, email us — that's the one step we'll help with personally.
Fair — and the reason PorchLights is different: MIT open source, both models are public on Hugging Face, firmware is designed to be updatable, and support is a human who answers email. Trust is earned, and we're building for that.
We're shipping a small first batch soon — orders from the waitlist get first dibs. You'll get an email before anyone else when units are ready.
No. PorchLights protects every device on the network at the router level. That's the whole point — nothing to install, nothing to forget.
Scam and phishing websites — fake bank logins, fake billing pages, credential-harvesting links sent by text, email, or QR — plus most ad and tracking domains. It isn't a firewall or antivirus.
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.
The gift for the house you worry about.
Diwali. Christmas. A birthday. "This watches over your house for you." You set it up from your phone before you even leave — and check on it from anywhere.
Be in the first 50 homes.
We're shipping a small first batch soon. Join the waitlist for first dibs and a launch price — we'll email you the moment units are ready.
Entered
You're on the list!
When the first batch ships, you'll hear first.
Know another family tech-support person? Forward this page — that's the whole go-to-market.
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