pfSesnse opensource enterprise grade firewall

According to a recent study conducted by a major Cyber Security firm, less than half the online population understands the term “Firewalls” — or know if they have one enabled on their PC.

Firewalls are even more important in a corporate or work environment. It not only keeps the corporate network safe — but can also optimize traffic routing and provide a whole range of other benefits.

If you are connected to the Internet, you are a potential target for an array of cyber threats, such as hackers, keyloggers, and Trojans that attack through unpatched security holes. This means that if you, like most people shop and bank online, are vulnerable to identity theft and other malicious attacks.

A firewall works as a barrier, or a shield, between your PC and cyberspace. When you are connected to the Internet, you are continually sending and receiving information in small units called packets. The firewall filters these packets to see if they meet certain criteria set by a series of rules, and after that blocks or allows the data. This way, hackers cannot get inside and steal information such as bank account numbers and passwords from you.

Basic firewalls such as the one included in your operating systems, only monitor incoming traffic by default. This may give you a false sense of security. Keep in mind, outgoing traffic, with your credit card information, bank accounts, and social security number is not protected. A good firewall will monitor traffic in both directions. That is, both your incoming data and your outgoing data, keeping your private information safe. In addition to preventing unauthorized access to your PC, it also makes your PC invisible when you’re online, helping prevent attempted intrusions in the first place.

Firewalls are one of the most critical parts of a network. It’s the first line of defense that your system has against attacks or unwanted visitors, and it makes all the difference in ensuring your data is protected. pfSense firewall is a highly versatile, open source routing and firewall software. With thousands of enterprises using pfSense software, it is fast the world’s most trusted open source network security solution.

pfSense has all of the features you would find in a commercial firewall solution and more, and it is absolutely free! Better yet, you can customize pfSense based on your organization’s requirements and create a unique solution that is perfect for you.

Let’s have a look some of the most prominent features of pfSense firewall.

Robust — Multiple features and packages

The first benefit is that pfSense is a feature rich, robust and very flexible software. Besides the essential firewall features — it has tons of additional features for network routing, remote connectivity, diagnostics and reporting and much more.

Whats more it is an extensible platform. You do not have to settle for the functionality provided out of the box with pfSense. You are free to write your own plugins and add-ons. Many members of the community have done just that. You will go over some of these key extensions later in the course.

Free

With all the enterprise-grade features and security pfSense provides — it is incredible that it is a free and open source product.

This is possibly its biggest benefit. You can download it from the pfSense website and install it yourself.

For large implementations and complex configurations — you do have the option to purchase licensed support from professionals — but that is completely optional.

In this course, we will give you all the information you need to work with this amazing piece of software.

Scalable

pfSense is very versatile and flexible. pfSense can scale from a dusty old x86 PC to a large cluster of servers. If you are a professional working out of a home-based office — you can use pfSense to protect your network. However, if you are a large company running a global infrastructure — you can still use pfSense to protect various parts of your work.

pfSense can run on a ten-year-old PC with limited resources, and it can also run on large multi-core servers. Thus making it entirely scalable. You can quickly expand the resources on your pfSense infrastructure in the event that your network needs a large capacity.

Conclusion

And due to these benefits and many other features which pfSense brings to the table — individuals, network administrators, security enthusiasts and companies across the world are embracing pfSense.

Needless to say — with organizations like Google, US Department Of Homeland Security, Shopify and NASA are putting their faith in pfSense — this free open source firewall solution is here to stay.

These are just some of the most recognizable names who have adopted pfSense as a core part of their network infrastructure.

About

Manuj Aggarwal is an entrepreneur, investor and a technology enthusiast who likes startups, business ideas, and high-tech anything. He enjoys working on hard problems and getting his hands dirty with cutting-edge technologies. In a career spanning two decades, he has been a business owner, technical architect, CTO, coder, startup consultant, and more. Check out www.TetraNoodle.com for more information.