pfSense No More Without Paid Version?

[GHammer]

I see that pfSense Home/Lab version is no longer offered. The path for existing users is to reinstall the CE edition and restore your current config. You can also buy a commercial license.

As I don't plan to do this for a company that revoked their offer so quickly, (what is the chance they will discontinue the CE edition), what options are there past OPNsense?

I have some forwards to run servers on my LAN, use Cloudflare DDNS, have pfBlockerNG. No VLAN, nothing special as far as routing/rules.

 

[coxhaus]

If you are using pfsense plus you can still use it. There are no more new licenses. but you can use current ones. You can install Pfsense 2.7 CE now.

I have plus so I am going to run it until my SSD dies.

Opensense would be an option if they would upgrade to FreeBSD14 but they are still on FreeBSD13.

 

[tgl]

If you are using pfsense plus you can still use it. There are no more new licenses. but you can use current ones. You can install Pfsense 2.7 CE now.

Ugh ...

I have plus so I am going to run it until my SSD dies.

What are you going to do once there are CVEs against the version you're running?

Opensense would be an option if they would upgrade to FreeBSD14 but they are still on FreeBSD13.

Really? FreeBSD 13 is in support until 2026. Refusing to use it so you can use an out-of-date, network-exposed, security-critical application seems like the height of folly.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Opensense would be an option if they would upgrade to FreeBSD14 but they are still on FreeBSD13.

FreeBSD 14 hasn't even been released yet (14.0-RC3 only became available yesterday). FreeBSD 13.2 is the current RELEASE version.

 

[coxhaus]

All of the new pfsense releases are based on FreeBSD 14. You should use google before posting.

I assume pfsense team has a lot of money backing their products as they move forward. Maybe they have more of advantage as they seem to be putting more money into the project than Opensense.

If you have a current pfsense plus license they will continue to support my router for updates. This is my understanding. If you don't have a Plus license then you will need to run pfsense 2.7 which is based on FreeBSD 14 or pay for a license.

I do like the idea of closed source code for Pfsense Plus.

 

[ColinTaylor]

All of the new pfsense releases are based on FreeBSD 14. You should use google before posting.

I know - I did check before posting. Maybe you should have used Google. pfsense are using the unstable experimental branch of FreeBSD. Personally I prefer to have my security gateway device using a stable release of the base OS (like Opensense does) rather than an experimental version.

 

[coxhaus]

If you want the lastest drivers then you will need FreeBSD14. I prefer the latest drivers and security fixes.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If you want the lastest drivers then you will need FreeBSD14. I prefer the latest drivers and security fixes.

Opensense gets weekly security updates.

 

[coxhaus]

On an older version of FreeBSD.

You get to choose. I won't use Opensense until they are on FreeBSD14.

 

[ColinTaylor]

On an older version of FreeBSD.

That doesn't matter. And like I said it's the "current" version of FreeBSD not the experimental version.

 

[coxhaus]

Like I said you get to choose. Most people have chosen pfsense is my impression.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Like I said you get to choose. Most people have chosen pfsense is my impression.

That may well be the case. The point is the main differentiator isn't whether the base OS is FreeBSD 13 or 14 it's whether you prefer pfsense or opensense.

 

[coxhaus]

It might also be NIC drivers as the newest NIC drivers are in FreeBSD14.

Also, power stepping on FreeBSD14 is different as it is supporting newer Intel speed steps to save on electricity.

 

[glens]

I do like the idea of closed source code for Pfsense Plus.

You can have it! I very much prefer open source over any kind of security-through-obscurity and/or secret "enhancement"s to established schemes.

 

[GHammer]

Well, thanks for the unenlightening discussion on BSD.
First, netgate people have posted in their forums on several points of migrating the home/pro version to CE. The announcement I read said only that those licenses will run for now. Not that they were good forever.
I have no idea if the licences are encoded by type. If so, easy to disallow use.

Pretty much I've decided that I'd rather migrate on my schedule than theirs.

In the past I had lousy luck with OPNsense and IPv6 and really didn't think "Don't use v6" was helpful.

So, what else is out there?

 

[sfx2000]

I see that pfSense Home/Lab version is no longer offered. The path for existing users is to reinstall the CE edition and restore your current config. You can also buy a commercial license.

As I don't plan to do this for a company that revoked their offer so quickly, (what is the chance they will discontinue the CE edition), what options are there past OPNsense?

Yeah, I saw that little give-take - not surprised by the Netgate team to do something like this...

I think there's a real opportunity to do something like pfSense/opnSense on debian or arch - with some credible competition, and perhaps netgate will mend their ways...

Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-pfSense (or even anti-netgate) - I appreciate them actually for the arm64 support they funded for freebsd.

It's just that certain managers of the pfSense disto have a bad tendency to kick own-goals - this pfSense Homelab issue is just one of them, another would be the whole wireguard debacle...

It's really telling that the maintainer of mOnOwall (which pfSense is a fork) - when he announce the sunset of the project, he recommended folks migrate over to opnSense...

m0n0wall - End of the m0n0wall project

m0n0.ch

 

[Tech9]

So, what else is out there?

You can play with this one:

[OpenWrt Wiki] OpenWrt on x86 hardware (PC / VM / server)

openwrt.org

Or even this fresh new one:

Announcing Tomato64 (for x86_64)

I am excited to announce Tomato64. Tomato64 is a project I've been working on in my spare time for the past 10 months. It is a port of Tomato Firmware to the x86_64 architecture and is also the first time Tomato has been ported to a 64bit processor. Tomato64 is forked from FreshTomato and...

www.linksysinfo.org

But your obvious choice is pfSense CE or migration to OPNsense.

 

[Christos]

Pretty much I've decided that I'd rather migrate on my schedule than theirs.

In the past I had lousy luck with OPNsense and IPv6 and really didn't think "Don't use v6" was helpful.

So, what else is out there?

Leaving pfSense behind, I consider Mikrotik's RouterOS as the most valuable software to invest time into.
It has a decent price of $45 one-time purchase if you wan to install it on your own x86 hardware and if you ever need to buy new hardware, their routers and wifi are very cheap, in contrast to pfSense/opnsense appliances.
Also you can choose between an LTS version and an experimental one.

 

[ddaenen1]

Leaving pfSense behind, I consider Mikrotik's RouterOS as the most valuable software to invest time into.
It has a decent price of $45 one-time purchase if you wan to install it on your own x86 hardware and if you ever need to buy new hardware, their routers and wifi are very cheap, in contrast to pfSense/opnsense appliances.
Also you can choose between an LTS version and an experimental one.

I struggle with the comparison between pfSense and Mikrotik RouterOS. I have used RouterOS for several years and apart from the fact that it is way harder to configure anything compared to pfSense, some stuff it just cannot do. I switched from RouterOS to pfSense for the sole reason that pfSense allowed me to use Letsencrypt certs with an FQDN through HAproxy to provide secure external access to my Nextcloud server which started out as tinkering but now has daily use as part of my business operations.

Over time, i learned to appreciate the easy setup and configuration of packages, VLAN's, time servers and so on. In many ways, it will always be a personal choice but comparing pfSense to RouterOS is just not an apples to apples comparison.

 

[GHammer]

They've come up with TAC LITE
$129/per year

Better but still a 'no' for me.