Untangle at Home Reviewed

[NUTW0RX]

Untangle is definitely one of the better platforms out there and solid improvements have been made over the years.

The only pros I'd give this ASUS build would be that it's silent and less power consumption, and maybe if you had a spare one laying around to play with. Other than that build your own on modest hardware, select the NICs you need and have all the storage you want to log and archive and not worry about space; the smallest of modern HDDs would suffice.

One build I just looked at has used about 32GB of SSD space. I went for less power and noise but a mechanical drive would work just fine if you're looking at cost. Current memory usage is under 2GB and CPU usage is currently less than 1% of an I3. WAN NIC is 100 Mb and all internal NICs are 1 Gb.

If you build your own you can use the free features which is probably more than enough for home users and forgo monthly subscriptions. And it's always more fun to roll your own anyway.
https://www.untangle.com/get-untangle/
https://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/Hardware_Requirements

I used to like SonicWall but pricing became an issue and other better alternatives became available. I recommend Untangle to others that want to pay for additional features. I hope Untangle doesn't stop the free version otherwise it would be time for me to move to an alternative; not a fan of subscriptions.

They also make their own boxes if you want a complete solution and if I had to, would rather go that route. I don't think the ASUS has enough firepower (read: toy). Look at the build it specs above and what they sell below.
https://www.untangle.com/untangle-ng-firewall/appliances/

I approve this message.

 

[thiggins]

ty for responses, while I have never had need of tech support for any of my computer builds I didn't understand a lot of the terms used let alone what would be appropriate to do or not.
hopefully someone will come up with a 'guide' with step by step advice for it. things like that usually pop up fairly quick, if I don't see something like that within a month ill take a shot at it anyway.
I too would like a review of this installed on the router(I have the ac3100 so same same) to get an idea of it perf impact.

Untangle says they have tested only on the RT-AC88U. It's not guaranteed to work on the AC3100.

 

[sfx2000]

Hmmm... I might have to download and try it on my QNAP Network Attached Storage (TS-453Pro)...

QNAP's Virtualization Station solution should run this nicely.

 

[mike2h]

Untangle says they have tested only on the RT-AC88U. It's not guaranteed to work on the AC3100.

outside of external design and extra lan ports they r the same afaik.

ok chkd their site they list 3100 support.

 

[thiggins]

ok chkd their site they list 3100 support.

Where, please? I asked them specifically and they told me only RT-AC88U is supported.

 

[mike2h]

https://www.untangle.com/untangle-ng-firewall/untangle-at-home/
click the 'run at home' tab.
my bet is they look at both routers as the same router(basically are) and assume everybody does the same.

 

[thiggins]

https://forums.untangle.com/hardware/37531-asus-rt-ac88u-ac3100-my-experience.html

 

[mike2h]

sounds like untangle is confused.
they also say 3rd party firmware is not supported. given this is a new application of their software I assume they'll get their shyt together and get everything ironed out.

 

[TheLostSwede]

After looking at all the features of Untangle its really deserves a pc build of its own to truly unleash it. Wish there were more Quad core + 1gb ram routers available with better pricing!

Gigabyte has this http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5788#ov
Not quite a router, but very close if you can source a suitable Wi-Fi card or two.
You'd still need a switch if you want more than one LAN side port though.

They also have a more powerful model coming http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=6192#ov

 

[JeffLang]

ty for responses, while I have never had need of tech support for any of my computer builds I didn't understand a lot of the terms used let alone what would be appropriate to do or not.
hopefully someone will come up with a 'guide' with step by step advice for it. things like that usually pop up fairly quick, if I don't see something like that within a month ill take a shot at it anyway.
I too would like a review of this installed on the router(I have the ac3100 so same same) to get an idea of it perf impact.

Untangle is extremely simple to set up, off memory you just run through some default questions / a wizard.

 

[sfx2000]

sounds like untangle is confused.
they also say 3rd party firmware is not supported. given this is a new application of their software I assume they'll get their shyt together and get everything ironed out.

I think they're fairly clear on what they're doing...

Said it before, say it again - nice effort here...

 

[mike2h]

I think they're fairly clear on what they're doing...

Said it before, say it again - nice effort here...

you are aware this post was in reference to the 88u/3100 mixup? there is some confusion on their website about it.
wished somebody had a clue as to its effect on router performance. that being said, i intend to give this a shot at some point in the near future.
or if there was support for ac 87- got one doing nada once i run Ethernet to my home theater

 

[sfx2000]

you are aware this post was in reference to the 88u/3100 mixup

I'm very aware...

If they felt the 3100 was good enough...

 

[mike2h]

I'm very aware...

If they felt the 3100 was good enough...

not sure what that means?
if u followed the posts u would know that they actually list support for the 3100 on their website. then in a post to their forums say they don't, even though (as was pointed out in their forums and never addressed) they are identical routers.
no biggie Just confusing. still looks like a leading-if not the leading solution for my situation.

 

[staticfree]

Untangle does not offer a pre-made RT-AC88U with Untangle at Home. You have to buy the router and do the install yourself.
https://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/ASUS_RT-AC88U_Installation

I am wondering what ASUS firmware version is the Untangle version ported from? I have a T-Mobile TM-AC1900 converted to full RT-AC68U (800Mhz CPU) and I have an RT-AC68P (1000Mhz CPU) running ASUS latest firmware version FW_RT_AC68P_30043804164. Both routers are running great, fast, stable and reliable. If I decide to port over to Untangle's firmware, I will gain more security options and flexibity, but I am wondering will I lose any of the latest Asus firmware updates and functionality? Also how much of a performance hit will Untangle cost for routing and speed? Trade off for more secure network?

 

[mike2h]

wouldn't rec doing that first it is not software/firmware supported and 2nd good chance it doesn't have the hardware to run it. u can try though

 

[staticfree]

wouldn't rec doing that first it is not software/firmware supported and 2nd good chance it doesn't have the hardware to run it. u can try though

Ahh! Glad you said that and made me look more closely at it, my old eyes are getting pretty bad these days and I misread the Asus router model as RT-AC68U when it was really RT-AC88U. So nevermind, I won't try applying this firmware to the RT-68U. I have a Netgear R7800 with 1.7Ghz CPU now... I wonder if they would be able to port the Untangle over to that nice router.

 

[Csection]

Ahh! Glad you said that and made me look more closely at it, my old eyes are getting pretty bad these days and I misread the Asus router model as RT-AC68U when it was really RT-AC88U. So nevermind, I won't try applying this firmware to the RT-68U. I have a Netgear R7800 with 1.7Ghz CPU now... I wonder if they would be able to port the Untangle over to that nice router.

I inquired about the R7800 and what I was told is they are looking at other routers, but that Netgear is not willing to cooperate with them to clear all the requirements needed and also that the RT-3100 was not supported(I think they only say that because they are not aware that the 3100 and 88u are the same, but it does use different firmware) as it is not quite the same as the 88u. I'm not sure if what I was told was really accurate, but that is what they said at this point.
I can tell you one thing I know about Untangle. I ran it a long time ago on a pc and it is very system hungry. It doesn't appear that it will run very efficiently on a wifi router. It ran ok on the pc, but as I said that was about 6 years ago and it has increased in it's system needs to be very efficient with today's internet speeds. It would be nice to run something like that on a wifi router, but the jury is still out on that. it would be smart to keep an eye on it to see if they can improve the package to work more efficiently on routers like the R7800 or RT-3100 though.

 

[thiggins]

it would be smart to keep an eye on it to see if they can improve the package to work more efficiently on routers like the R7800 or RT-3100 though.

Keep in mind DWS such as Google Wi-Fi, Linksys Velop and NETGEAR Orbi have quad-core processors...

 

[Csection]

Keep in mind DWS such as Google Wi-Fi, Linksys Velop and NETGEAR Orbi have quad-core processors...

I'm just passing on what was told to me by the Untangle people.
They revise and support the platform.
Maybe if you talk with them and give them ideas, they will try one of those systems you mention. Untangle is really nice UTM, but it will consume a lot of resources as packages are added. It is modular and the more package you add the more resource hungry it gets.
I used to run Smoothwall, but I decided to try untangle. It definitely slowed my system down. That's all I know!
Those systems you mention may be worth a try if someone was willing to risk one to try to run Untangle on it.