Run Different Firewall OS on ODYSSEY X86J4105: pfSense, OPNsense, IPFire, ClearOS, and Endian Firewall.

The firewall is important to network security systems, which help to isolate the network from various intrusions.

The firewall is like a wall as its name said between internal and external networks. The main purpose of the firewall is to stop intruders such as viruses, Trojan horse attackers, and hackers. It will constantly monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic to prevent any form of cracking, listening, DDO attacks, etc. There are dozens of open-source firewalls that can be downloaded online. Thanks to Novaspirit Tech’s video, he tested the below five open-source Firewalls and run them on Odyssey X86J4105. Let’s take a look at what is the difference and compare which one you will choose!

• pfSense
• OPNsense
• IPFire
• ClearOS
• Endian Firewall.

If your home is also like Novaspirit Tech said he has IoT device, TV, Google Chrome, Google Home and other stuff that required assign into difference separately IP address in order to these devices don’t interact with each other, then you need to set up a firewall to help you control how they are accessed. For example, Google Chrome collects user data and information on the local area network. We can control access rights through firewalls to avoid network harassment and attacks.

pfSense

pfSense is an open-source firewall and router platform based on FreeBSD. pfSense is usually installed on a physical PC computer or a virtual machine to make a dedicated firewall for the network. pfSense is equipped with a Web user to the interface for management tasks such as setting up and updating. You need an M.2 PCIe card to plug in the M.2 slot for the pfSense installation. The video from Novaspirit Tech said ODYSSEY X86J4105 can easily handle the pfSense and run well.

We recommend Coral M.2 Accelerator B+M key, which works with Debian Linux: Integrates with any Debian-based Linux system with a compatible card module slot.

OPNsense

Same as pfSense, OPNsense is also an open-source, easy to use firewall and router platform based on FreeBSD. OPNSense is kind of a fork of pfSense. OPNsense and pfSense are both suitable for x86-32 and x86-64 microprocessor architecture. OPNSense also provides a clean interface to help users configure, however, OPNSense does not support the installation from a third-party package in order to avoid coding defects, which is opposed to the pfSense.

IPFire

IPFire is a Linux distribution. It focuses on easy operation and high security. IPFire manages operations through an intuitive web-based interface that provides developers with many intuitive configuration options. IPFire is maintained by a group of developers who are concerned about security. They frequently update the product to keep it safe. IPFire comes with a customized package manager called Pakfire. Also, there are a lot of extension choices to you to upgrade the system of IPFire.

Through the video, it is said that IPFire- a little bit complicated to figure out the configuration, however, when you get everything set up, it is a really excellent firewall, especially it supports the built-in card such as Intel wireless card. The speed performs well. The video also mentioned Novaspirit Tech himself is also using IPFire as house networking now.

ClearOS

ClearOS is a simple, open-source, affordable Linux operating system based on CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is designed for small and medium-sized enterprises as a server or network gateway. ClearOS is a network and gateway server suitable for small businesses, designed based on a distributed environment.
ClearOS is equipped with an intuitive graphical web user interface and an application market. There are more than 100 applications to choose from, and more applications are added frequently.

It seems like ClearOS does not perform well as Novaspirit Tech tried hard on the registration and still did not make it work finally. Feel free to let us know if you want to see how will it work with other different boards we have at Seeed.

Endian

Endian Firewall is a full-featured Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, focusing on network security. It can turn the system into a fully functional safety device with UTM functions. Includes various functional components such as status detection firewall, HTTP/FTP virus protection, content filtering, POP3/SMTP virus protection, anti-phishing and anti-spam tools, SSL/TLS virtual private network, intrusion detection system, status packet inspection Firewall, an application-level proxy for multiple protocols (HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP), anti-virus and spam filtering, Web communication filtering, and VPN.

The video mentioned Endian is easy to set up and configuration. However, as the Endian now only support UEFI, a new-style BIOS. ODYSSEY X86J4015 currently only supports legacy BIOS, which is a traditional BIOS.

However, is there any way to install legacy bios on Endian?

There is a CSM option in BIOS for supporting legacy boot. You can enable CSM (also known as legacy boot mode) in your BIOS configuration to install Endian on ODYSSEY X86J4105.

BIOS settings, it is mainly responsible for detecting the hardware function and booting the operating system to start the function when starting up. UEFI is a new-style BIOS, and legacy is a traditional BIOS. The system installed in the UEFI mode can only be booted in the UEFI mode; in the same way, if the user is installed in the legacy mode, it can only enter the system in the legacy mode. You can also check our blog
BIOS Configuration Options on The ODYSSEY – X86J4105 to learn more about BIOS setting.

More choice: NG Firewall

The NG Firewall launched by Untangle is an integrated threat management system based on open-source code. It can be called UTM or NGFW (Next-Generation Firewall). NG Firewall’s main task is to guard the gateway security, allowing the major network packets to pass in and out through strict screening.

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