What up-board to use as firewall (as second life)

PackElend

Hi there,
we are getting some up boards for testing. As usual, it is not likely that they will any productive life soon, so I'm wondering if I could abuse it as a firewall in the IoT-lab being upgraded currently, giving them a second life.

I came across some old topics on pfSense but they are a couple of years old.
Could anyone advise me which board is the right choice using it as IoT-middleware (data collection, pre-processing and forwarding to cloud) and as a strong hardware firewall in its second life?

thank you

stefan

Pratik_Kushwaha

Hi @PackElend ,

UP Squared or UP Squared Pro would be a perfect option here. The current pfsense here, https://github.com/up-board/up-community/wiki/pfSense specifies the support and limitations, as per testing on UP Squared boards. However, please note that we do not support pfsense directly.
UP Squared Pro uses the same core design as that of UPS with 5g connectivity options and more, perfect as a middleware for IoT and AI applications.

Regards,
Pratik

PackElend

thx for the update that is very promising

any experience with https://opnsense.org?

UpBored

You shouldn't use any of these boards for security purposes of any sort. Out of tree kernel modifications without source on at minimum months old versions are asking for trouble. You may be better off selling it and buying a different brand that has actual upstream support.

Jazlyn

Hello @packelend
A good option if you are thinking about using an old UP board as a firewall is the UP Board with Intel Atom x5 Z8350. For managing firewall activities, these models provide an excellent mix of power efficiency and performance.