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Digital Reflection Panel


jmommy01

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I hooked mine up last October and have cashed out $165 so far.

And my Internet connection is fast and hasn't changed a bit.

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On 3/3/2017 at 2:22 PM, mikedorb said:

I can't complain about them. Have had no issues at all. I have belonged to DR since last April and have earned a total of 195.00 and have cashed out 3 times for 50.00 PayPal payments and am 5.00 away from another 50.00 cash out. I have never had an issue connecting to the Internet since I installed their box and my speed seems to be the same as it was before. To me at least it is easy money as all I have to do is keep the box installed and do the device updates each month. The one panel I had to resign from was  Smart Panel as their software was messing up my Internet. I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem so I did some troubleshooting and traced it to their software.   

You have to unplug the Digital Reflection meter before you sync your Smart Panel info. I have had both hooked up together with no problems once I figured how to sync Smart Panel. You will have to do it twice for it to get through.

 

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On 3/23/2017 at 9:28 AM, pmdwny said:

There are various issues with the Digital Reflection meter people should be aware of, and if they are not technically aware they are putting themselves at some risk using it.

The meter itself is designed to basically push all of your home network's data through it before allowing it to pass to and from the internet. It does this by fooling the other devices connected to your network into believing they should connect through it, not your home router/network gateway/cable-DSL modem. In effect, this allows the meter to see and report back on everything you do on any device connected to your network. Tablets, computers, laptops, smart devices, Wi-Fi or wired are all monitored. You need to be comfortable with the fact they have the potential to know literally everything about what you do online and monitor all of your traffic.

This is where you have to trust that they are discarding or not requesting sensitive personal information or tying that back to you. But at the same time you have to trust their security because the device, if hacked into, completely exposes every piece of personal information you have -- passwords, bank account info, SSN, private work connections, etc. as soon as you type them in or display this information on a website you visit. That is why they ask in advance about VPN's, because the device bypasses whatever security a work VPN might offer if someone can get access to the meter. It is perfectly reasonable to assume if someone does hack the device, your personal information will be stolen and sold. Hackers probing insecure networks can probably identify and target the use of this device and have at it. That is why if you participate, you better be using good security practices on your home network and your employer will be very displeased if their security measures are rendered irrelevant because you used this device on an internet connection you use to log into work.

I've had significant trouble with the meter because it creates a pseudo IP address for every connected device on my extensive home network. Normally I have around 35 devices connected to my router -- some wireless, others ethernet. A few hours after hooking the meter up, I suddenly had more than 70 devices assigned their own IP addresses. I can tell which ones are for the meter because they report with identifiers like: cpu31125481. This bogs down my router and significantly interferes with my connection in these ways:

  • Slows down internet performance - since all internet traffic has to be rerouted through this device, it significantly slows down a connection in part by having to establish additional secure sessions and pass traffic back and forth through the meter. This is most noticeable on fast cable broadband connections where the user is accustomed to better performance. A DSL user or someone on Wi-Fi or a slower connection is less likely to notice. This problem only infrequently is apparent on internet speed tests because the bottleneck often occurs inside your home network, not on your internet connection.
  • The router's DNS frequently gets messed up for reasons that are unknown to me. I'm not sure if the router or meter is simply inelegantly trying to deal with all of the unusual traffic or if the meter is conflicting with my own DNS selection.
  • The extra virtual connections seem to be time limited and are replaced frequently with new ones (or just disappear altogether) without always flushing out old ones. On some occasions I have to manually flush the router of all connections and reboot it to restore internet connectivity or performance.
  • If the meter has its own technical fault, your entire home network will crash and internet connectivity is severed until the device is disconnected (this has happened twice in three months). Resetting it usually resolves it but on one occasion I had to leave it disconnected for a day.
  • Because it frequently assigns and then abandons IP addresses for the virtual devices it creates, the IP addresses assigned to your actual devices can change very frequently. This creates a major hassle for wireless printers because they are configured to use IP addresses not expected to change much, if at all. When they do, the result is your device can no longer find the printer on your network. I've been forced to reconfigure both my laser printers several times to get them back and available for shared use on my home network. For an unknown reason, I have not been able to fix an IP address to either printer and have it stick when the meter is connected. Fixed IPs only seem to work when the meter is disconnected.

I have found technical support to not be very useful. They commiserate with your problems and claim to forward it to their technical specialists, but you never hear back from them. They expect you to put up with the degraded performance the device will cause on your network connection. The choice, at that point, is up to you - money or internet performance. The good news is the secure certificates they have you eventually install on your devices seem to work fine and create no issues. All of my troubles are with the meter itself. In my view, the programming behind the device's firmware is pretty poor and Digital Reflections should instead be considering supplying something like a modified router to panelists instead, where traffic measurement can be performed by the same device that powers a home network instead of diverting everything to an underpowered ancillary meter device.

You have to make sure that "use proxy server" is not checked in your settings!

 

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  • 2 months later...

^^^ I haven't had any of those problems. I don't really have to type my passwords in much. I used Lastpass. Plus even when I do type I have another software called Keyscrambler. I've had those long before I signed up with Digital Reflection PANEL. I've been using it for just about a year now. I haven't redeemed an rewards yet but I am up to $215. That's without having to do a single survey.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I would just like to say that I have been a member of Digital Reflection Panel since November 2016 and I have just redeemed my last  $50 credit to my account for a total of $150 in all. You earn the $5 for monthly monitoring, you also get bonus bucks for staying with them and if they send you a survey in an email, you get rewarded for that as well. I would have had more rewards had I updated the information monthly, but I have not been online over the past few months. However, my account is not deleted as long as I stay in contact with them, either by email, phone, or the website.

For those of you that might be worried about being hacked if you join, they do not look at the information that you input into the sites you go to, only the tracking cookies for each site to see what might be potentially a viable new production possibility for different products. Your information is encrypted anyway as long as you make sure the page begins with https://. If you do not see that "s" before those slash marks, your information is sent or is accessible by anyone and is definitely not secure.

Thank you all for reading this response.

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  • 1 month later...

i love Digital Reflection.. it takes a lil long to get your 50 payout but i think its like 15 days so far so not really to bad,, so far i have made 150 and i think i been with them less then a year. but thats because every 3 months i get a 20 dollar bonus, so totally worth it.. and besides u only do a update survey once a month and thats it,, just askes you about connected devices and stuff,,  but i would join  plus they are thru perks. so they always pay out.. 

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  • 4 months later...

I've had it since sometime in 2016, I got the first $50 in December 2016, in 2017 I got $150, total, and so far in 2018 I've gotten $100 and just cashed in for another $50 today. 

 

I have not noticed any speed difference, it tests out at what I'm paying for on speedtest.net.

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  • 3 months later...
On 1/25/2018 at 9:19 PM, MarySwanger said:

For those of you that might be worried about being hacked if you join, they do not look at the information that you input into the sites you go to, only the tracking cookies for each site to see what might be potentially a viable new production possibility for different products. Your information is encrypted anyway as long as you make sure the page begins with https://. If you do not see that "s" before those slash marks, your information is sent or is accessible by anyone and is definitely not secure.

If you have https in the URL, it is encrypted, but the little box they give you combined with the security certificates they have you install on each device allows them (or anyone with access to that box, for example a hacker who hacked into your network) to easily decrypt all of your encrypted network traffic. There is definitely a significant security risk only mitigated by you being a small value and relatively obscure target.

I have measured a consistent decrease in internet speeds of around 80%. Without their box plugged in (or by manually switching the network adapter's gateway to my router), I get 175-180 Mbps. With network traffic going through their box, speeds drop to 20-35 Mbps. This is with dozens of tests in a variety of network conditions, even down to isolating and testing individual ethernet cables to verify the issue is the box itself and not any other component in the network.

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On 6/1/2016 at 4:38 PM, jmommy01 said:

While not exactly a survey company....This company wants me to install an internet meter....$25 for installing meter they send you....monies thereafter for keeping it installed....any thoughts on this company or previous experience? www.digitalreflectioncenter.com 

I was a member digitalreflectioncenter.com for 2 years before I quit and relocated and they are legit bigtime. They pay when they say they do, they're not intrusive, they have great and accessible customer Service and you almost forget they're there. I don't work for them nor am I getting compensated for this review. It's the truth and  Digitalreflectioncenter.com deserve our hats off to them. They're one of a kind and enjoy giving away their money. 

I'm ready to join again!

Luis Rodriguez

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  • 7 months later...
On 11/6/2018 at 12:42 PM, cmdr_cody said:

If you have https in the URL, it is encrypted, but the little box they give you combined with the security certificates they have you install on each device allows them (or anyone with access to that box, for example a hacker who hacked into your network) to easily decrypt all of your encrypted network traffic. There is definitely a significant security risk only mitigated by you being a small value and relatively obscure target.

I have measured a consistent decrease in internet speeds of around 80%. Without their box plugged in (or by manually switching the network adapter's gateway to my router), I get 175-180 Mbps. With network traffic going through their box, speeds drop to 20-35 Mbps. This is with dozens of tests in a variety of network conditions, even down to isolating and testing individual ethernet cables to verify the issue is the box itself and not any other component in the network.

My experience is identical.  Speedtest.net does not lie.  However I will admit their support staff are extremely nice and the gift cards came regularly.  I just cannot justify selling that much bandwidth for so little compensaton.  I quit them last week.  

speedtest.JPG

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  • 3 years later...

 I just got my first survey, if that's what you want to call it. Yes the second response from Digital Reflection was to detect my devices (phones & computers) that was worth $10. So I have a total of $35 in the first three months. I am still waiting for the $50 needed to cash out.

  Can I add to this post that Survey Police directed me to TCM Panel (Survey) and after trying to cash out with $12.50 at PayPal I wasn't allowed to cash out. I think it was my VPN usage. I learned "DO NOT USE A VPN WHEN TAKING SURVEYS" It was an honest mistake, but still just a mistake and I should be allowed to cash out that $12.50 to PayPal. Now I double check my VPN every time. . .

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  • 1 month later...

I just got an email from them that they’ve decided to reduce the size of the panel. Unfortunately, I was cut from the panel also after using them for years.

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  • 4 months later...

Well, I previously answered this thread in July 2017. Now I can tell you I did redeem for some gift cards a few times over the years although I haven't lately. So now I have roughly $650 in reward money waiting to be redeemed.

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On 12/12/2023 at 12:23 PM, ErgoProxy said:

So now I have roughly $650 in reward money waiting to be redeemed.

Why do you have so much money in your account?  I've learned the hard way it is not a good idea to have a lot of money in your account.

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