Hi. I'm looking for security solutions to protect my PC from sending out any outgoing data I don't personally agree to,. I do not want to use a software firewall, unless it's software coupled with a hardware firewall. Let's say i don't trust Microsoft from spying on me though my Windows 10, and I don't trust my ISP because they can configure the router's firewall to whitelist some data transfers I'd never be aware of. I want a hardware based firewall to run between my PC via ethernet cable to my router/modem. I do Not need another router/modem. I'm looking for just a hardware based firewall thats configured for all outgoing attempts. There was a way once to make a hardware firewall using an old PC but I cannot seem to find this info or even if it will do what i need. Can anyone give me general info on a firewall like that? I cannot seem to find any without a built in router. Thanks!
I would recommend using pfSense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM or ClearOS -- as I've tried all of these and online forums/docs come in handy. For as long as you have two NICs on your old PC, you should be good to go. Feel free to check out this blog, http://www.mondaiji.com/blog/other/...the-ultimate-free-open-source-firewall-distro
Anything related to Firewalls (or security as a whole, for that matter) should be Open-Source. So as @kerykeion said pfSense is a good option. You can use a very old PC, if you want. You can find them for 50$ I think (or even donated, some people are willing to let their museum pieces go for Free). A Pentium 4, 512 MB of RAM, 5 GB of HD, and a very basic VGA (like a GeForce 4) is enough to handle an advanced firewall for a small-size company, so you should be fine.
if you dont trust win10 - degrade to win8/7. or try O&O shutup. MS dont spy on you if you dont want to - myths. router data is not important for computer data - no output = no input. deactivate upnp. UTM with content filter is expensive - waste of money for private usage. HTG
There is also IPFire which is an open source linux distro. Untangle is also a great one which nobody really talks about. Has free and paid for options. Both are OS"s you can install on a spare PC.
I try a number of them (I have several hard disks that I have configured, one with Sophos UTM 9, one with Sophos XG, one with pfSense, etc..., and I swap the drives in and out of a mini-ITX box I run in the closet). Right now I am running Untangle's free offering with the freebie modules for AV (Clam), Intrusion Protection (Snort), and ad blocking - what I consider the bare minimum of modules. Untangle's Clam AV isn't as powerful as Sophos's Avira option, and the free web filtering option in Untangle doesn't seem to have a malware category, so I guess Untangle (free) doesn't provide the same level of security that either of Sophos's home licensed systems provide. But Untangle is easier to configure, it seems to use about half the RAM that either Sophos uses, its ad blocking appears as good as Sophos's, and performance seems (very subjectively) as fast as XG and faster than UTM 9. XG is supposed to get an upgraded version 16 this summer - if it gets an overhaul of its UI (and is made easier to configure), I'd probably call it my top choice. But Untangle has a lot going for it. (I also like pfSense and IPfire. People swear by pfSense, but I find it requires more work to choose the right modules and get them configured to work well. IPfire has a very easy to use UI. Like the free version of Untangle, these also use Clam for AV, Snort for intrusion detection, and Squid for web caching server.) So lots of choices - you may not like what I like. If you have a few spare hard drives lying around, you can try my trick of having different drives for different firewalls - that way you can experiment and find the one that is right for you.
