Network security appliances
The network layer — from hotel WiFi to the home rack.
Firewalls with real IPS, travel routers that tunnel everything, and flash-it-yourself pfSense boxes — the highest-leverage $80–$600 you can spend on a network. Compliance angle: NIST SC-7 boundary protection, SC-8 encrypted transit, AC-4 segmentation — detail in the compliance library.
Firewalla — the CISO-home firewall
The genuine CISO darling: no subscription, real IPS, network segmentation, and an app your family can actually use. Where a model is on Amazon it's sold by Firewalla themselves at the same price as direct — so pick whichever checkout you prefer.
GL.iNet — travel & privacy VPN routers
Owns the privacy-traveler niche: OpenWrt underneath (SSH, LuCI), WireGuard and OpenVPN clients, AdGuard, Tailscale. Hotel WiFi goes through YOUR tunnel, not theirs.
Slate AX (GL-AXT1800) ~$120
WiFi 6 travel router, quad-core, strong WireGuard throughput — the flagship travel pick.
Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) ~$80
Pocket WiFi 6, 2.5G WAN, USB tethering, physical VPN toggle switch — the value travel pick.
Brume 2 (GL-MT2500A) ~$90
Ethernet-only mini VPN gateway (no WiFi) — the always-on WireGuard / site-to-site box for the office.
Flint (GL-AX1800) ~$90
Home WiFi 6 router, 5× gigabit, OpenWrt — the home-base upsell to the travel routers.
DIY firewall boxes — pfSense / OPNsense
Multi-NIC fanless boxes you flash with pfSense or OPNsense — the homelab path to enterprise-grade filtering. Protectli is the US-built, US-supported pick; the generic boxes are honest budget labware.
Protectli Vault FW2B (2-port, 8GB/120GB) ~$300
US brand, fanless, AES-NI, US support — the trustworthy entry firewall box, ready to flash.
Protectli Vault FW6E (6-port, i7, barebone) ~$700
Six NICs on an i7 — the serious multi-segment build. Barebone: add your own RAM and SSD.
MOGINSOK 6-LAN i5 Micro Firewall (2.5GbE) ~$400
6× 2.5 GbE on an i5-1335U, fanless — high-performance generic box for the home lab tier.
Beelink EQ14 (N150, dual 2.5G) ~$180
The cheap-and-cheerful dual-NIC starter — N150, dual 2.5G, good enough for a first home pfSense build.
⚠ Generic multi-NIC boxes (MOGINSOK and friends) are Chinese OEM hardware — fine for a home lab, but for anything client-facing our advice is Protectli (US-built and tested) or the secure-hardware lines we distribute ourselves.
Raspberry Pi 5 — Pi-hole / DNS filtering
A Pi 5 kit running Pi-hole or AdGuard Home + Unbound filters ads and trackers for every device on the network. Kit ASINs rotate — the search link below always lands on current stock (CanaKit and Vilros are the reliable kit makers).
Pi-hole is one of 10 Raspberry Pi security builds — honeypot, IDS sensor, WireGuard VPN and more, each with a complete parts list.
Secure workstations & appliances — our own lines
The tier above all of this — coreboot laptops, Qubes-certified workstations, and the NitroWall OPNsense appliance — is hardware we distribute ourselves. No marketplace, verified channel, our support.
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