A useful firewall question for Mac mini home servers
A small homelab is running a Proxmox cluster with separate networks for smart home devices, lab work, and management. A FortiGate firewall sits at the edge between the internet and the internal devices. The setup keeps the security system separate from the servers that run .
The main choice is whether to use a dedicated firewall box or run OPNsense or pfSense as a on a mini PC. A separate box can reduce the chance that a server problem affects the whole network, while a virtual firewall gives more flexibility. As 2.5 gigabit becomes common, the practical question is which small boxes can still keep up when intrusion detection and blocking features are turned on.
The bigger issue is which firewall platforms are trusted enough to sit at the internet entry point, and whether people would buy the same setup again.
Key points
- The setup uses a FortiGate as a dedicated firewall in front of a homelab.
- The homelab separates smart home devices, lab systems, and management traffic into different networks.
- The core choice is dedicated firewall hardware versus OPNsense or pfSense in a .
- 2.5 gigabit makes firewall hardware more important.
- owners should plan the internet edge before adding more home services.