Sometimes, when you say something and you eventually turn out to be proven wrong (even if it takes 3 years), you have to eat some humble pie.
For the record, the team at Untangle have created an awesome product. I originally didn’t use it/like it because there were no affordable home-based versions, and the free version was lacking in features.
However, I’m pleased to say that with Home version pricing for their full product, Untangle is now a serious contender for DIY budget-minded home techies. Here’s the rundown on mine, which I built for a grand total of about $150, including the computer, NIC, and a 1-year subscription to Untangle NG (Home license).
The basis for this machine is a tired, refurbished Dell Optiplex I picked up on Amazon for $75. It’s not anything spectacular, but for just running a software firewall, it’s perfect. It had 2 PCI slots and 1 PCI-express slot, which means you shouldn’t have any trouble finding network cards to put in it. I opted for a Rosewill dual-port network card, and since I had a couple extra PCI Intel Pro/1000’s sitting around, I threw them in there, too. Plus the onboard LAN port gave me five total network ports I could play with.
I’m a fan of Rosewill (which is a store brand for Newegg, I think) and have used their products in the past with zero issues. This NIC comes with drivers, and both low and high-profile brackets. It’s Realtek-based, and works out of the box with Untangle 12, Linux, and everything else. Highly recommended.
Once I had the machine assembled (and had fixed the cracked case trim from rough shipping) all I had to do was burn a DVD of Untangle NG 12.0, pop it in, and fire it up.
Installation was very similar to what I experienced on my previous attempt with Untangle, which is to say it was simple and straightforward. I went ahead and added all the modules I wanted to use, even though at this point they were still in Demo mode.
Once I had the machine up and configured, I went to Untangle’s website and ordered the “Firewall NG Home” subscription, which I then applied to my server’s name (in the Dashboard’s Server List). I rebooted the server, and all the modules showed up as active immediately.
The whole process took about 30 minutes, including installing the NIC, the OS, and everything.