10 Best Open-Source Firewall to Protect Your Enterprise Network
Open-source firewalls are best known for protecting the network from threats by filtering inbound and outbound traffic and ensuring network security.
Whenever we talk about open-source firewalls, the first thing that strikes our mind is “fully Free.”
However, let me explain it, open-source is the term that is used for the software that is distributed under a license that allows the user access to the source code.
Basically, this type of license simply allows users to analyze and modify the software with complete independence.
Moreover, open source also promotes collaboration between users, which means rapid and varied development of many tools.
What is Open Source Firewall?
Generally, the Open Source Firewall belongs to the community; hence, without any doubt, its development and updates simply depend mainly on the community.
However, the fact is that this also increases confidence in the continuity of the program as well.
Hence, in this post, we will show you the 10 best open-source firewalls to protect your infrastructure.
Just after the arrival of Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows, by default, offered all its users a very basic and simple firewall.
Generally, with this Windows firewall, we can control the use of our internet connection tools and apps.
Not only that even, but it also protects us from all the possible computer attacks that may arrive through the network.
With the arrival of the Windows 10 Creators Update and the excellent operation of Windows Defender and its firewall, this basic security software has gained great importance and has made more and more users trust it.
But, the fact is that this system couldn’t offer you the whole thing and features that you are finding to secure your infrastructure.
Generally, open-source software offers an economical and adjustable option to deploy basic networking for the infrastructure and home.
Not only that even, but the open-source products also provide us with simple routing and networking functions like DCHP and DNS.
What are the benefits of open source firewall?
These are the main benefits of open source software:
Lower cost: With open source licensing, the code is free.
When you use an open source firewall, you pay for support, security protection, and help managing interoperability.
10 Best Open Source Firewalls 2024
- Perimeter 81
- PfSense
- Untangle Firewall
- OPNsense Firewall
- Endian
- IPFire
- IPCop Firewall
- Shorewall
- SmoothWall
- Iptables
- ClearOS
Open Source Firewall Features
| Open Source Firewall | Key Features |
|---|---|
| 1. Perimeter 81 | 1. Secure remote access 2. Cloud agnostic integration 3. Easy to configure & maintain 4. Granular user segmentation 5.Checks for Endpoint Compliance |
| 2. PfSense | 1. Disable filtering 2. Network Address Translation 3. High Availability 4. Multi-WAN (Wide Area Network) 5.Different WAN load balancing |
| 3. Untangle Firewall | 1. Spam Blocker Lite 2. Phishing blocker 3. Virus blocker 4. OpenVPN 5.Blocking a country |
| 4. OPNsense Firewall | 1. Forward Proxy Caching 2. Capital portal 3 Traffic Shaper 4. Virtual Private Network 5.Help with wireless networks |
| 5. Endian | 1. Email security 2. Multi-WAN 3. Intrusion Prevention 4. Quality of service 5.How to Forward Ports |
| 6. IPFire | 1. Time server 2. DHCP server 3. Dynamic DNS 4. Catching name server 5.Help for OpenVPN and IPsec |
| 7. IPCop Firewall | 1. interfaces with typical behavior 2. VLAN available 3. Indirect installation to a flash device 4. Web interface 5.Add-ons and extensions that are flexible |
| 8. Shorewall | 1. Great interface 2. Multiple interfaces per zone 3. Multiple zones per interface permitted 4. Different rules for proper access 5.Setting up a stateless firewall |
| 9. SmoothWall | 1. Outbound Filtering 2. Modified time and Accessed time 3. Simple to use and offers a great quality-of-service 4. UPnP support 5.Gateway for the Application Layer |
| 10. Iptables | 1. Chain-related operation on three-built-in chains 2. Target Disposition 3. Match Operation on the TCP, UDP, and ICMP header fields. 4.IP Filtering for Source and Destination 5.Dealing with Fragmentation |
| 11. ClearOS | 1. Help with files and prints 2.Managing users and groups 3.List of Servers 4. Intrusion detection and prevention system 5.Market for Applications |
All these products can be easily downloaded and deployed on any hardware, on a virtual platform, or in the cloud as well.
However, there are many who also sell them with pre-configured appliances, only if you like their functions or support, and don’t want to build your own machine.
Here in this article, we have mentioned the best open-source firewalls for infrastructure and homes.
However, apart from all these things, we found pfSense and Untangle are some of the best firewalls that could be used in a wide range of environments.
