Protectli Vault FW4B - 4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Quad Core, AES-NI, 8GB RAM, 120GB mSATA SSD

So far this little firewall has rocked. I was running pfsense as a VM, but decided to move it out to a dedicated piece of hardware and this fit the bill nicely. Running the latest pfsense software which was very easy to install via USB stick. I did end up buying a USB fan to help keep this cool, its air cooled so a fan just helps out.

i purchased this to run pf sense firewall

This does what it does well and keeps on doing it with no issues. I was able to download documentation and installation was pretty easy.

I found this while looking for a replacement for an old first-generation FitPC device that I used to use as a network firewall. The FitPC still runs, but for the last few years, Ive needed something with gigabit ethernet ports, which it doesnt have.

My work relies on pFsense (firewall/router) and I had a SG-2440 (2 core Atom C2358) go belly up after five (5) years, it wasnt the netgate products fault, e.g. Intels Atom C2000 processor family has a fault that effectively bricks devices, costing the company a significant amount of money to correct e.g. Errata note AVR.54, titled System May Experience Inability to Boot or May Cease Operation,

Well built fanless mini pc. I set it up for use as a router w/PFSense. Working without issue. I bought the memory and storage below to use in conjunction with the Protectli Vault

Im using the Protectli Vault FW4B 8GB RAM, 120GB mSATA SSD as a firewall appliance for my extensive home network. It has enough horsepower to handle several people in the household watching video, a total of 35 clients on my gigabit network, a VoIP phone system, an at-home business and inbound and outbound VPN service. I bought model with the larger RAM and SSD drive for plenty of buffering and network storage space. The PFSense community edition software is free and easy to download and write into the firewall appliance. Using a keyboard and display, the basic bring-up is easy. Once the basic firewall is active, the more advanced features of the PFSense firewall sofware can be overwhelming at first for an intermediate IT professional. I use the firewall software to VPN through my Internet provider as well as offering remote access VPN sever to my network and file share. In my setup, the firewall appliance sits between my cable modem and a managed switch and my WiFi router (which has been re-configured to be an access point). The firewall appliance serves as a router with DHCP complete with VLANs for segregating traffic. The Protectli FW4B will definitely work for a large household and a small business.

I use this as my firewall/router at the colo facility Im hosted at and it is a solid unit, does not require any maintenance or cuddling and very compact design.

This is a very solid and sturdy box. Setup was a breeze. SSD, RAM and pfSense installed in about 30 mins. No issues whatsoever so far, and it has handled everything I have thrown at it without the CPU going above 25%.

Love this little device. Tends to run pfsense on idle a little warm 50°C,so I suggest buying a small quiet usb powered fan. Maybe have a small unit installed on future models?