Forum Discussion
Jack Smith
Jul 26, 2017Copper Contributor
My Wish: A full fledged firewall for Windows 10
I have used Windows software for years. I have always purchased software to protect my Windows systems. I would really like to see Microsoft step up the protection for a home/portable PC, to meet t...
Justin Satava
Aug 01, 2017Copper Contributor
I personally buy old Dell Optiplex SFF towers refurbished locally, either with an i3 or an i5 depending on what it's being used for (The Core 2 Duo / Quads don't properly support AES) and I get them cheap too, around 150-250 each. I then throw a dual Intel Nic and a pair of Sandisk SSDs in them to take the total spent up about another 100 bucks. I install pfSense with the dual drives in a geo mirror. I've installed these as firewalls in several buildings that I handle IT work for, as well as my home and the company I work for. The appliances are great if you don't want something bulky or power hungry, but the small form factor towers are great if you have high speed connections with multiple vpns (almost every company I take care of has a vpn tunnel into my home and my office firewall in addition to telecommuters). pfSense is updated regularly and has shown no sign of falling off the grid like older devices do because it's a soft solution. The most recent update (2.4) will be utilizing freeBSD 11 as the back end (currently 2.3 uses freeBSD 10.3). If this software appeals to you, be sure to check out freeNAS as well. It's also freeBSD based and handles almost everything I need for home and small office.
Hope that sheds some light on the software!
Jack Smith
Aug 01, 2017Copper Contributor
Yes, I did see the mention of the freeNAS software, which I had planned to check out also. I am running a Dell Precision, T3500, which fits my home need, and gives me extra power. I purchased a second one, which I am just about done upgrading. I had thought about throwing VMWARE on my 2nd one, but decided not to regress. I had been running Linux/Windows at one point, as a dual booting system, on an old Optiplex. FreeBSD has a long track track record.
Thanks for the pointers. I have been cleaning the cobwebs out of my head, looking at solutions for the current day.