pfSense Review

Straightforward set-up but it does require some technical expertise to do it.

What is most valuable?

  • Free
  • Open source
  • Robust
  • Strong community support
  • Strong author support

How has it helped my organization?

Critical network infrastructure has improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two years.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've also used Untangle and Sophos firewalls

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward, but it requires some technical expertise and tweaking.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it entirely in-house.

What other advice do I have?

Make sure the implementer has programming experience.

**Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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author avatarit_user149982 (Project Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees)
Vendor

Indeed this is a very powerful opensource solution but as you say it requires some technical expertise and tweaking (but actually which firewall technology does not require some now?). Fortunately the community and project documentation are rich and very helpful. Extra packages availability is also rich, it goes from the simple CLI tool like bmon to fully graphically managed RADIUS, SQUID, SNORT servers for instance (see : https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Category:Packages). It also support natively High Availability Sync thanks to CARP and pfsync protocols (see: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Configuring_pfSense_Hardware_Redundancy_%28CARP%29). Few days ago I set up VPN SSL configuration with OpenVpn in TAP mode, all done through the GUI (no need to edit any files through CLI) what quite impressed me (usually bridge creation is done through CLI).
To conclude I really invite people looking for a free firewall solution to give a try with pfsense :-)
Just keep in mind such a solution is devoted to projects requiring "not so much speed", I mean 40G or even 100G firewalling and either not UTM inspection.

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Highlights
We generally use it because it's cheap. When we need something more robust we use Barracuda and Sony Wireless Routers. For certain clients, we use pfSense because it's compatible with the VoIP platform.
My company mainly works in the health and educational domain, schools and universities. I prevent the improper use of content from schools and universities. I defend the medical records for the patients in our hospitals. That is the main use case for me for the firewall.
I had some outages in the network and we provide services for our company. We sell mobile credits. The terminal gets access to our own server inside the network and if one internet fails, then the other one is still up and we have a back-up link on the devices.
This solution has helped our organization by protecting our network from attacks.
This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution.
The initial setup was simple and fast.
The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary.
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