pfSense Review from an SME IT manager
April 02, 2019
pfSense Review from an SME IT manager
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with pfSense
We use pfSense across several countries office such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai & Beijing and served over 150 staff. We use pfSense to build site-to-site VPN to link up our office network. pfSense is quite stable and easy to manage that is very important because our IT teams are small. Handled over 4 years, pfSense has not given me any big issue so I will recommend it to my friends.
Pros
- Easy to use. Good user interface design! Easy to understand and easy to set up.
- Lower hardware requirement. 3 years ago, we used an old PC to run it. Now, we have changed to a router device with Celeron CPU and 8GB RAM. It runs smoothly with a 1000G commercial broadband.
Cons
- Need to assign WAN, LAN interface in "text" console but not in web interface when you first install in a new network.
- I need to configure everything and send a pfSense device to my colleague in other countries, they are not IT professionals so they have difficulty assigning interfaces when they first boot.
- Positive. Old desktop + free software license, that is unbeatable ROI.
- At present, we use an Intel celeron + 8GB RAM device which supports a 30 person office with 1GB fixed IP WAN and IP phone systems very well.
First of all, I don't need to be a Cisco professional to manage VPN, load balance, multiple WAN/LAN, Firewall and etc. pfSense has an easy-to-use web interface and I can do everything and add packaged add-on services. Moreover, for Small & Medium Enterprise, IT budget is already a concern. A spare computer + free software license is quite a bit more attractive than Cisco products.
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation