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Home user’s though are at a monetary disadvantage. Many organizations spends hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars trying to install the latest and greatest security solutions to protect their infrastructure and data. Almost daily, a new zero day, security breach, or ransomware occurs leaving many people wondering if it is possible to secure their systems. Once you are convinced you like the platform, you may choose one of the dedicated hardware platforms such as PC Engines APU, TekLager TLSense, Soekris, Netgate or others.The Internet is a scary place these days. This is a great way to get started if you have a computer with at least 2 network cards. PfSense can be installed on any hardware - your old computer may become your new router. pfSense puts you in control of your networking. Open Source operating systems such as pfSense are regularly updated and are known to patch security issues promptly. Once the router is sold, there's no reason for the manufacturer to keep spending money on development and security. Manufacturers of the commodity routers don't have any incentives in patching software bugs, performance problems or even serious security holes. Your average off-the-shelf router is unreliable, has limited functionality due to manufacturer lock-down and potentially has multiple software vulnerabilities. Why use pfSense and not one of the off-the-shelf router? Nowadays, pfSense is often replacing CISCO and other expensive name brands in large corporate environments, not because it's free, but because it is feature rich and mature platform.
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PfSense is flexible by design. It can be used on a small home router as well as run the entire network of a large corporation. pfSense also allows for installation of third party open source packages such as Snort or Squid through a built in Package Manager, making it the default choice of many network administrators. PfSense is mostly used as a router and firewall software, and typically configured as DHCP server, DNS server, WiFi access point, VPN server, all running on the same hardware device. Even software updates can be run from the web UI.
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Generally, one never needs to use terminal or edit config files to configure the router.
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pfSense is typically configured and operated though a user-friendly web interface, making administration easy even for users with limited networking knowledge. PfSense can be installed on most commodity hardware, including old computers and embedded systems. PfSense is a free and open source operating system for routers and firewalls. PfSense - introduction to the most powerfull router operating system
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