Protectli Vault 6 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Dual Core i3, AES-NI, 4GB RAM, 32GB SSD

As much as I'd like to purchase Netgate hardware and directly support the pfSense project, I just cannot justify spending WAY more for x86 hardware with 6+ Intel NICs from Netgate when compared to this box for home use.I bought this to replace a Asus RT-AC68U running Tomato (was previously running DD-WRT) for my home router. And this is...something else. For what I'm actually using this box for, this is WAY overkill. My home network consists of 4 devices: desktop, printer, phone, and tablet. I bought this strictly because I wanted to learn pfSense and I'm a strong believer in overkill. If it I was doing it over again, I'd go with one of the Celeron offerings from Procteli.This has been absolutely rock solid from the hardware side. There's never been an unexpected reboot or failure. pfSense is barely taxing this system, even with pfBlocker-NG and SNORT running full bore. According to pfSense, this system is at 3% CPU usage and 11% RAM, with 5% of the 32GB SDD used.I am using a Ubiquiti switch and WiFi AP for the LAN and WLAN side of my network, with this monster providing routing and fluff. Per the pfSense documentation, WiFi is the weak point of this kind of setup. You absolutely WILL want to have some kind of 3rd party WiFi setup. I would HIGHLY recommend Ubiquiti for WiFi capability. This hardware will NOT give you WiFi. You WILL have to purchase additional hardware to get WiFi. This hardware is designed to be a router, end of story.You'll need to purchase separate hardware to provide LAN and WLAN needs. But as a router, this is an absolute beast. But please understand that a router is not a switch, and a router is not WiFi.

This review is for the LEVEN mSATA SSD 1TB 3D NAND TLC SATA III 6 Gb/s, mSATA (JMS600-1TB) ASIN B08M62FTBN (USD$108.99 on 09/2021) and Crucial RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) DDR4 2400 MHz CL17 Laptop Memory CT2K16G4SFD824A ASIN ‎B019FRCV9G (USD$145.93 on 09/2021). I purchased and installed them at the same time to upgrade a Protectli Vault FW6B 6 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Dual Core i3.I am running OPNSense on FW6B in a home network and this is a way overkill upgrade. I installed both items at the same time approximately 1 week ago. The FW6B recognized both with no issues and is working fine. I decided to upgrade as the original system was a 4G Memory and 32G SSD unit. I wanted more memory to run Sensei and some other packages.Most of the time my CPU usage is 0% with intermediate spikes to 3% to 7%. I happened to capture a rare spike to 25%. As I said this upgrade and system is way overkill for my application. All I can say is that the FW6B/Memory/SSD combination appears to be working with no issues.

This is sturdy appliance and really perfectly fit for a firewall/pfSense deployment. Installation was easy, I had it up and running very quickly, installing via USB. Once it was working I decided to order a second one so that I would have an HA setup and could take one down for maintenance or upgrades and not lose DHCP and DNS. Overall this is a great box and I would recommend it.

I previously had the 4 port celeron model and it lasted 4 years. When it broke I decided to upgrade to the 6 port i-3 model. The first try didn't go so well with the 6 port model. One of the NIC's was not working. Amazon provided good service and is sending me a replacement. I'll follow up with this review once the replacement comes in.

Recommended by our IT department and it works great.

Great firewall box. Runs my OpenVPN household connection nearly at 150/150 through pfSense, while staying cool at ~40C.

Got this unit paired with a Draytek Vigor 130 VDSL modem for FTTN NBN via PFsense, works like a charm. These are a high quality unit with good build quality.