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

This thing is built like a tank! This is my first dip into running pfSense, and the question I could not seem to get a straight answer to is how much throughput is any particular hardware package good for?

I use these and vaiants for many pfsense deployments for home and commercial projects. Great hardware and well worth the price. I will continue to use these in future projects.

These things make great little PFsense firewall boxes. You just download the operating system from www.pfsense.com, install and youre good to go with a VERY configurable firewall.

The box could have done with a convective heat transfer element since it feels a little hot for cloistered storage. The OPNsense initial configuration has some default assumptions but there is always the folks in Tech Support if you are not the type to read the manual online.

I had trouble with my first device, and the company resolved the problem.

My Protectli Vault FW4B has its mSata screws locktight/glued from the factory. This makes zero sense considering you have to install your own storage. The screws used are very low quality and strip immediately. Buyer be warned.

I had PFsense running on a 4 core computer that drew about 54 watts, according to my Kill A Watt. I already had the ram and the mSATA drive, and now the Protectli Vault does the same work using 10 watts.

I run pfSense on this unit, which is a truly superior routing solution. If you have been running DD-WRT-style firmware on proprietary hardware (i.e., prosumer wireless routers), this is a major step up in terms of reliability and horsepower. It can easily process 500mbps traffic through the firewall--which is my current ISP maximum--and terminate VPN traffic at about 100mbs. It will presumably run OPNsense--or your favorite full Linux distribution--without a hitch.

Easy to install and operate with pfsense community edition. Just downloaded an image file and I was up and running. pfsense comes with a version of Free BSD as an operating system as this system is bare bones. You need to understand what you are doing. That being said, I was up and running in less than an hour with really packet packet moving This replaced my problematic Netgate 3100, also with pfsense. The Celeron, 8 gigs of RAM and 120 gigs of space makes it a really fast mover for streaming. I use for two separate networks in my house and that was a breeze to set up. There is room for one more completely segmented network. I use IPv6 routing and it works like a champ. Highly recommended for a bare bones system for pfsense fir walling.

This is my third unit that has now failed. There is an issue with some function with the motherboard that fails prematurely. The latest has a QC mark indicating a manufacture date of late 2018. I have had dozens of computers and none have had this high a failure rate in such a short period of time. If you need fanless SFF then these work well when they run but be prepared for it to die within a few years.