If your router has ever gone belly up either at work or at home you know the frustration of resetting and the universal fix-it of unplugging the router in hopes of getting back online. As a busy working mom who also has a side hustle as a freelance writer and social media manager who is married to a techie you could say that we have pretty high expectations for any tech gear at our home. We also have two daughters, ages 11 and 14, who have grown up in the age of the Internet so if our WiFi is down you can guarantee that someone will know within about 10 seconds. “MOM, the WiFi is down!”

Starry Station is a touchscreen router that monitors the health of your network at home and also allows you to control your family’s Internet usage through simple to use parental controls that block either specific apps, such as Instagram or Facebook, or overall Internet useage. My 14-year-old is in her first year of high school and before winter break she had finals. I was able to easily control her Internet usage through the use of the free Starry Station app. I like the bedtime controls setting and have set it up for both my girls.

Straight out of the box to set up took me less than 10 minutes and I thought I might need to call my tech-savvy husband but I was able to easily set it up without any help.

The next step was downloading the free app which allows me to monitor and control Internet use from the palm of my hand and then having everyone connect their phones to the network (Starry Station has a random name generator and the names are pretty darn hilarious). There are a few options: Bedtime, Block Bad Content 24/7 or Help Kids Focus, which is perfect when your kids need to use the Internet to study, not “snapping” on Snapchat.

Not only is Starry Station a great device that shows you how your WiFi is performing and alerts you to any problems, but its award-winning design makes is stylish enough to look more like a cool accessory than a clunky, utilitarian piece of hardware.

A few techie facts:

• Fast home WiFi: Better gaming, streaming and surfing
• Auto speed checks powered by speedtest.net let you know if you get the level of internet service you pay for
• Works with all internet providers, modems and service types (cable, DSL, fiber, etc.); WPA2 Encryption

The retail price for the Starry Station is $299.99 which is not on the low-budget side of tech devices, but if you have multiple devices (you can connect up to 60) to monitor it’s a great all-in-one router and parental monitor device to organize and streamline your Internet usage in the new year!

To find out more about Starry Station visit their website. You can find it at many box retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, which has many helpful reviews for reference.

Disclosure: I was sent a Starry Station unit in order to facilitate my review. As always, all words and opinions expressed on my blog are mine all mine.