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If you get it for free, then fair does. It's not a terrible piece of kit, and far better than most internet providers give as a freebie with the service, but for £75 you can get much better standalone.

At the end of the day though, I save far more from WOL and VPN capability; these are crucial to me while the rest is a plus.

Yes you can use software to monitor usage, but only on the computers that are running said software. It's not neccessary but I like to be careful - I'm a "heavy" user and expect to fall foul of VM's "detrimental use" policy any day now. Especially given my area was already considerably overutilized before I got here.

And when your connection dies three or four times a day, sometimes for half an hour or more at a time, having a router with a backup connection is a real godsend.

But the clincher is remote WOL. I often need to access my PC from elsewhere, and being able to turn it off when I leave home and remotely power it on only if/when I need remote access probably saves me more in electricity per year than the cost of the standalone router to do it with.