Protectli Vault 4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Quad Core (Atom E3845), AES-NI, Barebone

This is a great little box for SOHO firewall / endpoint protection. The hardware is standardized x86-64 Intel compatible, so it will run most modern OSes. I tried out Untangle on it and performance was good. I put 8GB of RAM into this system along with a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO mSATA SSD.The console access can be hit or miss, depending on the OS you ultimately use. pfSense has a serial console installer, but Untangle does not, so if you are like me and have a monitor that does not accept a native DB15 VGA connection, do yourself a favor and get one of these:  Cable Matters VGA to HDMI Scaler Converter Cable with HD 1080 Video and USB Audio Support  This will allow you to convert the analog VGA signal to a digital HDMI signal that you can use for an honest video output.The biggest drawback to this unit is the spacing, or lack thereof, between the VGA and USB connections. When you have a standard size VGA cable attached, the clearance for the adjacent USB connections is VERY minimal, and will definitely dictate what you plug into this unit. I had to get creative with which USB sticks and keyboards I used concurrently on this unit. I even had to pull out a USB 3.0 hub to be able to use some different combinations of peripherals. Once you have everything installed and deployed, then the USB/VGA port clearances don't really matter, but when you have it in the back office to work on, you will likely throw a few expletives out when connecting vital peripherals.If I had one suggestion for improvement for the manufacturer, it would be SPACE OUT THE USB and VGA PORTS MORE! See my photos for some of the troubles I had.All in all, great looking, well-performing hardware in a power-sipping package, but with some design flaws. Cable Matters VGA to HDMI Scaler Converter Cable with HD 1080 Video and USB Audio Support

Update: May 2020I tested the firewall with Fiber internet service at 500Mbps bilateral throughput (not full gigabit), and this device performs very well. Even with full gigabit service for home use, this firewall should be more than adequate for years to come.Update: June 2018There was an IDS package running (suricata) that should not have been on when I did my CPU stress tests. Turning off suricata yielded much more accurate results since this level of DPI is not required for home use. I have a 225/20 Mbit internet connection for full disclosure when running the tests. The test results are added via pictures in this order:1) Normal - Idle2) Normal - Running SpeedTest3) Normal - Running iPerf (570 Mbps)3) Suricata - Idle4) Suricata - Running SpeedTest5) Suricata - Running iPerfAlso the firewall logs show thousands of attempts of attempted connections that are properly blocked by the firewall. Stay safe out there folks!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A fantastic pfSense box for running my home network. My review is about use in a home network, NOT a business network.During use it is warm to the touch but nothing crazy hot.Since my home network traffic does not require sustained bilateral gigabit throughput, this model will suffice. I never see that kind of real traffic load on my network; unless the traffic load is artificial. When my family runs software updates, downloads, video streaming, cloud stuff (aka hitting the network hard) this unit keeps up perfectly fine with CPU briefly hitting 33% in real-world use. The downstream LAN switches in my network are from Ubiquiti ->  Ubiquiti US-8-60W Unifi Switch Purchased 8GB memory and 120GB SSD. Memory use is a paltry 500 MB and using ~2GB storage (snort cache). Could have saved more money going with 4GB memory, but extra memory never hurt anyone right? The mSata slots are labeled "MSATA" and "WIFI". Do not install the SSD into the WIFI slot and wonder why the SSD is not showing up for hours (like I did).Memory ->  Kingston Technology 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L (PC3-12800) 1.35V Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM Intel Laptop Memory KVR16LS11/8 SSD ->  Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow mS200 mSATA (6Gbps) Solid State Drive for Notebooks Tablets and Ultrabooks SMS200S3/120G For home use, get this one and save yourself some Benjamins.---For sustained bilateral gigabit throughput (Google Fiber, AT&T Fiber 1000, etc...) I would lean towards the i3 Protectli Model as a future proofing step (which contains a faster processor) ->  Firewall Micro Appliance, 6x Gigabit Intel LAN, AES-NI, i3, BareboneUbiquiti US-8-60W Unifi SwitchKingston Technology 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L (PC3-12800) 1.35V Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM Intel Laptop Memory KVR16LS11/8Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow mS200 mSATA (6Gbps) Solid State Drive for Notebooks Tablets and Ultrabooks SMS200S3/120GFirewall Micro Appliance, 6x Gigabit Intel LAN, AES-NI, i3, Barebone

This has worked great for me, and I'd highly recommend it as an embedded network appliance at the price point. I've tried it with both pfSense on FreeBSD and Ubuntu Server on Linux, and all hardware seems to work natively without any rough corners or weird drivers.Since I imagine most people are going to use this as a network appliance and not generally have a display connected to it, the serial COM port (and included RJ45 to DB12 cable) is a fantastic benefit that you rarely see in consumer network hardware. It gives full access to the device's BIOS setup interface and most OSs' boot consoles, and makes setup and network troubleshooting far easier than the traditional approach of repurposing a keyboard and monitor, or the embedded router hell of resetting and praying for a default network configuration. I was able to install and configure pfSense from scratch without connecting a display or keyboard. Ubuntu required video to do initial setup, but could be configured to support the serial console shortly thereafter.The chassis build quality is solid, all the ports are flush and well aligned, and access to the DIMM slot, two mSATA slots, and SIM slot (still unsupported in the US? See the Q&A section) are accessible under the bottom panel with four screws. There are pre-drilled and grommeted holes for installing antenna, though the options for equipping this device with wireless hardware are somewhat limited, so you may want to look elsewhere if homebrewing a WAP is part of your plan - the only officially supported wireless card is a USB based 802.11a/b/g only device.It comes with a bracket for hanging this off of a standard monitor VESA mount, but since it's so ill equipped to drive a modern display, I can't anticipate that this would be useful. I can see no reason why you couldn't use it as a wall mount bracket, though, as this device would probably be pretty well suited for hiding in a network closet somewhere.The link, activity, and HDD LEDs are all clustered on what I would vaguely consider to be the "back" of the device - the side with the DC in and network ports, where one is likely to have the most wires plugged in. This makes it mildly inconvenient and ugly to position the device where these LEDs are actually visible, but whether this is something you'd even want to do is mostly a matter of preference.

The following is an edited review, changed from about six weeks ago. I'm adding two stars, but I'd still be wary. Protectli, and Brent Cowing, have been VERY responsive and helpful in resolving the problems I state below. But, nevertheless, unless you can be certain that you are getting an updated BIOS, these units will not work with Samsung SSDs with the BIOS setting in AHCI mode (the best, fasted mode). If the BIOS is not updated, the setting must be IDE mode, which does not take advantage of the SSD's speed/capabilities.Following is my original review, and I'll end with some further comments.******************Read carefully below, because these are broken at the BIOS level!!!I bought three of these for our office, and I'm into trying to make the second work now. No joy on either. We're 0/2 on getting them to boot, as I'll carefully explain below.Configuration includes the ubiquitous Crucial memory in 8GB. We also installed a Samsung 250GB mSata Evo 850 drive.Symptoms: Device boots directly into a B4 error and just hangs. The only way to get into the BIOS at all is to remove all devices except the memory and keyboard (be sure to remove the USB stick you're trying to install PFSense from!). Once in the BIOS, you can disable "Quiet Mode" booting, so that at least you can see what's happening and be able to hit the Delete key. Unplug, reinstall the SSD, and reboot the unit. Ah, NOW you see the BIOS boot screen, and you can hit Delete. But if the drive is in the primary port (parallel to the memory), then hitting Delete will just hang forever at "Entering setup..." and it will NEVER get into the BIOS. If you instead put the drive into the secondary port (crosswise to the memory), then you can at least enter the BIOS. But there is no way to make the drive be detected, no matter which of the two ports you use for it. So, actually, the SSD must be non-existent or in the secondary mSata port to even have the unit be "functional" at all. But then neither the BIOS nor PFSense's installer (yes, with the drive in that secondary slot, the unit will TRY) will see the drive as existing.Note that the BIOS data is 07/07/2017 and version 1.00. Yes, that's right! 1.00! I mean, this is just over one month off the presses, and that BIOS is sure to be bug-ridden, just as we are discovering ourselves.Basically, this thing is a BRICK, and you should NOT waste your time being a crash-test-dummy for this unit!We'll fight the mess awhile longer, because it's such a hassle to find something like this that purports to have AES-NI (which PFSense will apparently require in their next version). But I'm enthusiastically warning you off of purchasing ANY of these units, because they are LITERALLY in "beta test BIOS" and NOT ready to actually work, particularly not with the Samsung SSDs (which, to our minds, are the best available SSDs).******************Now, as mentioned, Brent had us ship the units back to him, and he was able to get them to boot by setting the BIOS drive setting to IDE mode. This is not an "ideal solution" by any means. Ultimately a BIOS upgrade resolved the issue. But it took well over a month of back and forth to finally end up with properly working units. So, be sure to verify what BIOS version your unit comes with and that your chosen drive can be run in AHCI mode.Brent was extremely responsive and helpful. I mean, as a vendor itself, I give kudos to Protectli! I'll be doing another review of Protectli, and I'll be giving them five stars. Rarely do you find a vendor follow up on a problem and work tirelessly to resolve it like Brent did! It's sad that the units themselves remain a bit dubious (check that BIOS version!) with various drives. But Protectli does take care of its customers!

Was eyeing an ½ priced Bay Trail J1800 that I think would fulfill my modest requirement when pFsense threw down the monkey wrench, so after agonizing$$, broke down and bought this AES-NI-ready PROTECTLI, attracted by its properly-mounted passively-cooled CPU. For folks in a budget, I saw some generic micro-PC in Amazon, with AES-NI and a single LAN port however. Nick’s Hardware over at YouTube got an excellent video on how to configure a VLAN (in conjunction with your VLAN-capable Ethernet switch) for a single-LAN port box to work with pFsense. What I could not do was to put up with potential fans/heat/noise of these cheaper boxes. Your needs and budget may vary. In case you are wondering, somebody at YouTube also tried the Ethernet-on-a-USB dongle thing with pFsense and unhappy result. PROTECTLI has a new 6-port box with more processing power still, but that would be way-overkill for me plus it won’t fit into my 1U cubby.How much Ram/SSD needed depends what you are running. The basic pFsense package requires very little, I started with 10% Ram out of my 2G, and 6% SSD out of my 16G. I will be running some traffic shaping and a bandwidth monitor, maybe ntopng and that’s it in my near future. Under my normal load am seeing CPU 47c, Case 38c, Ram 45c, SSD 52c, drawing 11 watts. No problem seeing the Crucial DDR3L and Sandisk SSD I threw at it. Didn't see any fan header inside.PFSENSE + AES-NI: Now some of you are saying, just use something else and OPNsense is even written by the original pFsense developers and save yourself$ on the hardware. I saw OPNsense and not crazy about its UI in its current version, but most importantly am going with something that’s been around a while, large user community am saying, so anything I want to do with pFsense, somebody has done it. This is my home production box and not play/lab, so quick resolutions to problems and stability are highly desired, hence staying with pFsense.THERMAL UPDATE: As feared, this box's passive cooling is not very efficient, thin fins. The CPU went pass 50 to 52c at idle after I moved it to the closet. Reluctantly I added an undervolt, for quiet, 140mm fan, it turns out my modem on top also needs help, so 2-birds, 1-stone. For good measure I fabricated an air scoop, see pics, so ram/ssd get some help too, now CPU idles to more civilized 36c.MINOR COMPLAINT: With the power supply energized, if I now stick in the coax power plug into the FW4, it gives off a spark, a momentary short. I haven't have the time or patience to investigate why it does that and mostly after things are working one hardly touches the power any more. It just something disconcerting and annoying probably by the design/mounting of the power jack.TWO YEARS LONG TERM: Solid like a rock. No prob whatsoever. Somebody @Utube re-pasted the heatsink and gained a few degrees, I have it at 35c with the fan so haven't bothered. The only prob I have is, my cable modem boots slower than my firewall, so after a power failure, my FW boots faster and is ready for a WAN IP, the modem is not ready. FW just sits there with an WAN IP of 0.0.0.0. Pfsense is suppose to have a feature for this but for some reason doesn't always work, am thinking this has to do more with software than hardware. Doesn't happen often enough, so a minor inconvenience. Power over here is a good as it gets, maybe 1-2 outage a year.FIN - 30 MONTHS DEAD. Power out, no storm, took it out, very disappointed.