Protectli Vault FW4B - 4 Port, Firewall Micro Appliance/Mini PC - Intel Quad Core, AES-NI, 8GB RAM, 120GB mSATA SSD

I have purchased 3 of these for myself or for friends. They are great boxes that are available in multiple configurations to fit your needs. The only way to go when looking for a pfsense box.

I purchased the device to install PFsense on it for my home network. My expectations were low on the installation and setup however I was way off. I simply stuck the PFsense USB in and powered on the little guy and it took right off and PFsense was installed in less than 5 minutes, no issues. The GUI was super slow and unresponsive right after the install but after an hour or so it caught up and hasnt been slow since. I really like this device for what I have going on and I would recommend it. The one concern about it would be how hot it runs. its running in the 120 degrees (F) range but other than that, Im really impressed! Im even thinking about getting another one to create a solid VPN tunnel.

I didn’t have any problems running this box with opnsense. Everything worked out fine configuring as a firewall.

8 days uptime as of writing - no unplanned reboots and plenty powerful enough for my home network. Solid metal case of which the heatsink is part of, which is an interesting design. Runs warm to the touch (29C) but not hot. I had no trouble getting pfsense 2.4.4 running - I imported my config from the router this replaced. Very nice.

These cheap mass produced units most likely have hardware backdoors built into them. It makes really really good sense for China to push these into the world markets. Only buy if you want to greatly assist them in their worldly conquests. Real hardware costs more because name brands make sure to a reasonable extent that their hardware isnt compromised.

I was a bit nervous about this unit after reading other reviews but have this up and running and it runs quick and actually really cool (CPU temp 80 degrees). Barely warm to the touch. I have it running pfSense and it is able to keep up with my 1G connection quite well while even having a OpenVPN connection continuously open (all traffic not going through it obviously).

I got this directly from the vendor with OpnSense installed. Its a nice little machine. Much better that your standard router/wifi combo. I have my old wtr in ap mode now. Protectli has good customer support should you have an issue.

I have bought many of these for Pfsense firewall projects in the past. These firewalls do not disappoint. These a great and drive packets home to their destinations quickly and efficiently. I recommend this over any closed source firewall or any consumer grade junk out there. Great base for a wired LAN and wLAN project!! I will continue to buy these for any future project that comes up!

This Protectli Vault FW4B replaced my ISP’s Router/Modem/WiFi Combo:

Perfect little box for pfsense.