I am using it for personal use.
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Easy to setup and understand. Lots of features.
What do you like best about the product?
It has ALOT of the capabilities I am looking to deploy all in a single box.
What do you dislike about the product?
I am still having issues with multiple wireguard tunnels. Reverted to openvpn.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Multiple egress routes based on rules.
Vpn using MFA and certificates.
Vpn using MFA and certificates.
Satisfaction
What do you like best about the product?
My general confidence in its high security level (on the condition that its configuration is errorfre)
What do you dislike about the product?
1. Sometimes I experience uncertainty in how to interpretate and/or configure and understanding consequences of firewall configuration commands.
a. One example of my experience: I did create firewall commands for an OPT interface (on SG-1100, as well as on SG-2100), in order to setup Netgear WiFi Routers R6020 to the OPT Interface as their WAN. However, when I looked at Netgear router logs, there used to be an abundancy of log entries indicating DOS Attack. Therefore, I assume that I didn't manage to secure the OPT interface against incoming traffic from the Internet.
b. Another example that I do not understand: Log entries in pfSense (System, General) containing text "now monitoring attacks", quite a lot of entries.
2. Use of PHP in pfSense which, to my knowledge, is not a completely reliable web language, and often is subject to security vulnerabilities.
a. One example of my experience: I did create firewall commands for an OPT interface (on SG-1100, as well as on SG-2100), in order to setup Netgear WiFi Routers R6020 to the OPT Interface as their WAN. However, when I looked at Netgear router logs, there used to be an abundancy of log entries indicating DOS Attack. Therefore, I assume that I didn't manage to secure the OPT interface against incoming traffic from the Internet.
b. Another example that I do not understand: Log entries in pfSense (System, General) containing text "now monitoring attacks", quite a lot of entries.
2. Use of PHP in pfSense which, to my knowledge, is not a completely reliable web language, and often is subject to security vulnerabilities.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Secure Electronic communication from my home (Stationary computers, Laptops, Smart phones, WiFi AP and router (since a few days, no longer including Netgear WiFi routers having OPT as its WAN interface)
Great alternative to edge firewalls / routers
What do you like best about the product?
pfSense has great documentation and even better support. Even TAC Lite users get to enjoy pretty much immediate professional support with staff based in Texas!
Setup is quite simple. Very sensible defaults out of the box. Uptime is pretty much determined by the frequenc of updates. It's rock stable and solid!
Setup is quite simple. Very sensible defaults out of the box. Uptime is pretty much determined by the frequenc of updates. It's rock stable and solid!
What do you dislike about the product?
Prices of their lower end appliances perhaps.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Netgate appliance with pfSense+ as my Edge firewall.
Full featured Layer 3 Solution for SME Networks
What do you like best about the product?
Stable routing and firewall solution, supporting HA, IPv4+6, boot environments, multiple routing alternatives, DoH and DoT, Wireguard and other VPN solutions. Firewall supports interface-based rules in addition to address-based ones, which is essential when WAN addresses or GUAs are dynamic. Freedom in selecting hardware platform, either Netgate's or third-party. Boot environment support makes it simple to switch between releases and configurations. Well-documented with a helpful community in addition to paid support. Integrates easily with Layer 2 switching and AP solutions from other vendors.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing. Even the smallest pfSense+ deployments require a yearly fee. pfSense CE is available for those who want a fee-free solution.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Switched to pfSense+ primarily for full-featured v6 support: GUAs + ULAs, interface-based firewall rules that enable firewall rules to track dynamic GUAs. Was previously using another vendors integrated L2+L3 solution. pfSense makes it simple to combine its powerful L3 features with other vendors L2 solutions.
Netgate user review
What do you like best about the product?
Someone that can help support the product when time is of the essence. Once we received our product, it was of high quality with high quality support.
What do you dislike about the product?
Their support is a bit clunky, and the ordering process was opaque.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
A reliable firewall gateway that I can learn once and keep as the main , industry standard firewall so I don't keep having to switch vendors.
Good performance, reliable, and open source
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It is quite easy to manage firewall rules and policies in pfSense. It is not the most user-friendly, but it gets us there. We have to be sure of all the things that we are activating, but it is easy. It is alright.
What is most valuable?
Open source and support are valuable. I have community support.
Its performance is good. It is reliable. I would rate it a solid nine out of ten for performance.
What needs improvement?
There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC.
It would also be interesting if we could add an interface for DNS versions. It will be a multisystem to make all the blocks of the DNS. I know that firewalls are different from DNS, but if we could take advantage of everything in a single system, that would be lovely.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using pfSense for half a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe it is scalable. If I need more computers with more NICs, it is scalable, but it is not something related to pfSense.
How are customer service and support?
The support that I have is community support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use WatchGuard Firebox. It is different from pfSense. I have Firebox on a rack mount server on a cabinet, whereas pfSense is on my computer, so it is quite different because I can use any kind of hardware to implement the firewall.
Firebox can make an open-source version, but that is not the target of the company. pfSense is doing a great job because they have covered both situations. They have an open-source version with community support, and if we purchase the license for hardware, we can also get support from their side. In the long run, pfSense has more advantages.
If I go to a company and they ask me to implement something, I would most definitely go with pfSense. Its price is lower. I have a great knowledge of pfSense. I can very easily find support in the community, and if the company buys a license, I can get support directly from pfSense. I believe it is a win-win for pfSense and for the customers.
How was the initial setup?
I am implementing it in two phases. In the first phase, it was implemented directly on hardware on an old computer with five NICs, and everything went smoothly. The second stage is virtualizing this machine into a Proxmox server, which is a bit more tricky. It is quite difficult to make it work on the NIC hardware system.
The first phase is very easy. It is almost plug-and-play. We just have to install it and activate the NICs. Everything will go smoothly. The second phase is not easy because I have to make double configurations on Proxmox and on pfSense. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of the ease of setup.
In terms of our environment, I have one computer connected directly to the Internet's router, and then all the information is passed through and managed, so I can filter everything by MAC address in my network. I have it on one computer, but my whole network is using it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use the free version.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it. For personal use, it is a great way to start. For companies, it is a great add-on. Companies can get support by buying the license.
I would rate pfSense a ten out of ten.
Great pleasure to work with Netgate
What do you like best about the product?
We start with community products (pfSense virtual machine) and now with hardware products.
With two products, even with free version, we have lot a features, easy support and great fiablilty.
We has some issues but support come back quickly to us.
With two products, even with free version, we have lot a features, easy support and great fiablilty.
We has some issues but support come back quickly to us.
What do you dislike about the product?
Some issues with update (hardware don't restart after update) or update was not detected by products...
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Great firewall with a lot of features (NAT, GeoIP, IP Reputation, ...)
VPN support compatible with Fortinet VPN
VPN support compatible with Fortinet VPN
Great open source firewall, good hardware
What do you like best about the product?
I have been using pfSense for many years. First on my own hardware and later on netgates hardware. The System is easy enough to use but also gives you the ability to have fine tuned rules.
I think because the pfSense Firewall software is open source and has a very large community you have a higher chance to find solutions to edge cases than with other non-open source firewalls. Some solutions might feel a bit hacky but there's always a way to get the software to behave like you want
I think because the pfSense Firewall software is open source and has a very large community you have a higher chance to find solutions to edge cases than with other non-open source firewalls. Some solutions might feel a bit hacky but there's always a way to get the software to behave like you want
What do you dislike about the product?
I have had a few clients which have the 1000+$ Netgate 7100 hardware firewall which have had heat related problems (total freeze if the temperature exeeds a value that it was easily reaching in normal use).
After opening the case I realized the heat sinks were mounted in the wrong orientation (not with, but against airflow) which seemed to be a production error because later versions of this firewall had the fans on the side and the rotated orientation would make sense there but not with the version my customers had.
After fixing the orientation of the heat sinks I had no more overheating problems though. Thanks to the standard hardware it was easy enough to fix.
After opening the case I realized the heat sinks were mounted in the wrong orientation (not with, but against airflow) which seemed to be a production error because later versions of this firewall had the fans on the side and the rotated orientation would make sense there but not with the version my customers had.
After fixing the orientation of the heat sinks I had no more overheating problems though. Thanks to the standard hardware it was easy enough to fix.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
pfSense is a good blend of a for-profit company and open source software. They benefit from the large community which is there because it is open source, and companies benefit from having Netgate as a primary contact for support.
The market for open source firewall software is not very large and pfSense is the main choice for people who want to use open source and selfhostable software.
The market for open source firewall software is not very large and pfSense is the main choice for people who want to use open source and selfhostable software.
Best firewall
What do you like best about the product?
All in one package. it has firewall and router and other plugins for proxy etc..
What do you dislike about the product?
Pfsense doe3s not have the any network monitoring packages etc..
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
firewall and proxy and it works well
Using pfsense for more then 10 years
What do you like best about the product?
Open source, stable, has everything you need or may need
What do you dislike about the product?
Not being used lot by business also no image for raspberry pi
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Firewall, vpn for users,site to site vpn, and many more.
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