Building a home business firewall using a WRAP 1-1 and m0n0wall
My brother, who lives in Sydney, has used a similar setup to me for several years and it was due to his recommendation that I began to look at using monowall as a firewall software product. So far I had used a Netgear box which I was not happy with - it did not allow me to fine tune firewall rules. I also did not want to run a big box as firewall and this is how I came to decide to try out a WRAP device.
I could also not justify the cost of running a whole PC just for the firewall. The monowall php based interface to the underlying FreeBSD system is very easy to use and it has never failed or gone down since it has been installed. I am also amazed that it does not even heat up - not something I could say of the Netgear box I had used previously.
Further to the fact that it runs so quietly and stays cool, it hardly consumes any power at all.
I do a fair amount of travel for business and I need to have good connections back to the office. I have set up a VPN via the WRAP 1-1 and also run OpenVPN on a separate box inside the internal network. I am currently testing and comparing the two different types of "secure communication" channels back to the office whilst traveling. I have noticed that monowall intend to include OpenVPN in future releases.
I am also in the business of consulting and setting up VOIP systems in particular using Asterisk. So far I have had very good experience using Asterisk on the FreeBSD platform - currently running on 6.1. I use FreeBSD as a platform on all my servers for the business.
I have noted the fact that you are currently developing a version of the net4801 case that can take a full-height PCI card which would cater for the type of TDM cards I use and this would seem an ideal solution for the box. [Note: The new net4801 case is now available. Please see our catalogue for more details.]
I am already using small form factor PC, with a compact flash to IDE interface purchased from yourselves - once these new net4801 boxes are on the market I plan to start using them for this project.
