I've been running Untangle NGFW (next gen firewall) on an old desktop PC for the past 2-3 years.
Unfortunately, Untangle was acquired by Arista, and they are deprecating the HomePro version, for which I was happily paying around $150/year.
Decided to go with OPNSense in place of Arist/Untangle. Will eventually install the ZenArmor add-in on OPNSense and will likely go with the $99/year plus edition of ZenArmor.

So I bought a new SSD on which to install OPNSense. Plan was to start configuring OPNSense, but then if it was taking too long, I could just swap back to the SSD that has Untangle installed on it to bring the network back up... then work on the OPNSense install config later.

Well... after HCBW got desperate because she couldn't print next week's e-meals menu, and kids also became restless... I tried swapping back in the hard drive with Untangle on it... and it was not recognized as a bootable drive in the BIOS. So I had to gut it out and get OPNSense working ASAP. I managed to get the primary network working. HCBW was able to print the menu (whew!). This process took around 3 hours.

However, I've got two VLAN's configured: one for IOT and another for Guests. These were getting IP addresses, but couldn't see the internet. So things like the thermostats, Alexa and Ecodots, and Kasa smart light switches wouldn't work. Picked this back up around 10:30 pm last night. Decided to follow a youtube set-up video and write-up in detail instead of skipping through it. Around 1:00 am or so I made it through... and it all works. The lack of firewall rules were the reason the vlans weren't seeing the internet. On vlans it doesn't add any default rules, so everything is blocked until you add rules to open it up.

See the link below to understand the undertaking. The fact that guys like this take the time to do write-ups and videos like this for the general good of society is awesome. I hope he's making some money off his efforts somewhere. Might have to see if I can donate to his cause.




Also, earlier in the weekend I got another thing checked off regarding getting the new version of the Unifi controller working on my Unraid server in a docker.

See here for a lot of discussion, including some posts by Oilman on page 16.


Once again, the fact that there are guys out there that figure this out and then share it with other "hobbyists" is awesome. I can't program to save my life... but can follow config instructions and can google really well to find where others have addressed the same issues I am facing.

Anyway... thought I'd share my adventure. Hopefully not TL/DR for some of you.