Firewall Comparison: Untangle VS pfsense

Networking & Firewalls
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1 Like
2

MAJOR item missing in your comparison…
Untangle has zero support for multicast. That makes its VLAN support much less valuable for a typical modern home:

  • Chromecast across VLANs? No.
  • Sonos or other audio system across VLANs? No.
  • Various backup or other services across VLANs? No.

I started checking out Untangle, hoping for an easier experience… and stopped as soon as I hit this roadblock. Yes, there are manual workarounds… with no guarantee they would survive a version upgrade.

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Not sure where to put this… a Helpful Hint that really helped simplify my own infrastructure.
In my home, I’ve created several VLANs, eg for:

  • Internal wired servers/very secure
  • Guest wired/wifi
  • IoT wired/wifi
  • And a few more for “other stuff” :wink:

I also have some subnet separation.

I needed a good way to parse all that out to various devices. How to do it with speed and cost effectiveness?

Enter one cheap, magical box: The Netgear GSS108e ProSafe Smart Switch - I paid $50 but used is even cheaper :wink:

  • I run one LAN ethernet from pfSense to the switch, with ALL VLANs on it
  • The Netgear parses out each VLAN, or combination of VLANs (for Unifi), to various ports, in any way I want – all at full LAN speed, with no drain on the pfSense CPU (since it’s a separate box.) Oh and it’s a tiny thing and comes with a lifetime warranty.

Problem solved.

The Unifi US-8-5 does the same thing, plus integrates with Unifi’s controller, for $99 and a 1-2 year instead of lifetime warranty. But that also will accomplish what’s needed.