Qotom Mini PC with 8GB RAM 64GB SSD, 4 LAN Port, VGA, 4 USB Port, Celeron j1900 Processor Quad core 2 GHz, Fanless Mini PC j1900

This computer is more than enough to run ipFire, OPNsense or pfSense in a small network environment. The M.2 SSD inside makes booting and configuration changes a snap. I had no troubles booting from USB thumb drives to test and compare IPfire, Opensense and pfSense software, and no troubles using the VGA output port to an attached monitor. Each of the three routing software packages I tried had no difficulty recognizing the hardware of this device. I had no trouble implementing VLANs, booting, shutting down, updating, or assigning interfaces.Layout-wise, it is awkward that the power supply plugs into the front of the device to the left of the four RJ-45 sockets instead of in the back.It would be nice if the power button on the back would be on the front instead of the back too.In operation with packet-filtering and port isolation on three ports and a WAN port, with a fair number of traffic shaping rules, the case gets warm but not hot to the touch (so far). For a larger network than mine that only has a couple dozen computers connected at any time, and only a few doing much at a time, I would opt to get a two port version of this device so that this could be a rules based firewall and then leave the rest to a good quality network switch.Using this as an all-in-one firewall / routing device behind a home or small business Internet bridge is only marginally more capable in some ways than a less expensive and faster Mikrotik router / switch type unit. The balance between the two approaches is that the Mikrotik RouterOS is extremely efficient but more difficult to configure in a hybrid bridge / switch configuration, whereas pfSense and this device is approachable. Lately, neither this computer and pfSense or the new version of RouterOS are well documented, so plan on spending some time testing your results if you go down this path. It is unlikely that most configurations will make good use of the 4th ethernet connection, but it is nice to have. If you are an experienced and patient engineer type, a Mikrotik (especially models with a built in switch chip) would probably be more efficient and much less expensive.I am skeptical about the product ability to handle a lot of active rules and connections without some overheating, however this hardware was able to handle every configuration I threw at it with ease.I wanted to escape the toil of working through the new Mikrotik bridge / switch approach in RouterOS, and did so, but it probably took me as long or longer to come up with a working approach for my needs using pfSense and this device. Sometimes, it really is just so much easier to use two or even three simple device / logic combinations instead of trying to fit everything into a single unit -- the allure of using this computer.Caveats:Having the monitor port and usb sockets for configuration was really luxurious. A couple configurations would have locked me out without them. BUT - unless the "Windows 7" legacy boot mode is selected in BIOS, there must be a monitor or dummy VGA plug connected to the device for it to boot. This caused some head scratching when I carried the pre-configured unit to the computer room only to find it unable to boot headless there. Switching the BIOS to the legacy Windows 7 mode took care of it without loss of configuration.Watch out for pfSense configurations and add-ons. Some add-ons (thinking GeoIP related) ended up bypassing the firewall rules, thus had to be removed. Also, some settings are not applied without a full reboot of the router, even though the interface reports that all has happened -- be sure to test things and include a reboot every once in while to be sure that everything works as planned.This is such an expensive device for what it ends up doing, it is tough to justify having a spare. I'm keeping a less expensive router within reach to fill in for this unit in case it fails early..If it turns out that future setups take me back more into Cisco or Mikrotik, repurposing this computer will be tough. The model I bought has no HDMI output or 4K video, no sound, and no Thunderbolt 3 ports, yet its M.2 drive and CPU / Mainboard are quite peppy. It will be a sad waste of money to toss it in the e-waste box for lack of a future use path.End User Verdict after One Month:This is a keeper, hardware is enough to have a luxurious router / firewall toy that works really well so far for home and small business. More ports than needed for a firewall router, as the other ports will be bridged, but workable with various rules. Ideally, this unit with an HDMI receptacle and two, or three ethernet ports would be fine if coupled with one more separate switch units for most uses.If there are product issues in the first year or two, I will update this review to reflect those issues.

It's exactly what you want for a little router PC. Plenty of power, works great with my gigabit internet connection. Having real Intel LAN ports is a real plus. The thing is tiny and makes no sound, and barely even gets warm.It came with pfSense but it took me about 5 minutes to switch it over to Sophos UTM. The BIOS is a regular one with tons of options, including the ability to specify whether or not it should power itself on when the power is applied.The only thing that is a bit odd is the VGA port, in this day and age of HDMI and DVI and DisplayPort. However, I guess a lot of server stuff is still on VGA, and I only needed the video out for about 10 minutes to get everything set up.

I bought this to run PFSense on and it works well. I was able to boot up, install and get going fast. I do not have wireless installed so I cannot report on how well wifi works, but as it is cabled, its great. It does everything I need to and is plenty of fast for a firewall.The only issue i have is it does not seem to have a wake on power or wake on network function, so if you lose power to it, you will have to manually press the power button to turn it back on. This isnt a big issue for me as I have mine on a UPC and it boots fast, but there have been a few times I have lost power and the UPC ran out as well.

UPDATE: Our Comcast service had an outage for 8 hours on the morning that the appliance quit working. I'm now thinking that someone cut a cable doing construction down the street or there was a short/surge somewhere in Comcast system and somehow that fried the appliance. Not really the fault of the appliance. I was going to only give it 4 stars because nothing else in my server room got fried, but that's probably because the appliance took the brunt. The performance of this box had been great, especially for the price, so I'm changing to 5 stars. I will be getting a Cat6 surge protector to prevent losses in the future.Previous review: Worked great for a while, but after 6 months in service pfsense refused to boot. I bought a second one of these as a backup and moved to that one. The first one won't boot even off a flash drive with the pfsense install image. Other utilities also refuse to run, and after replacing the mSata I get the same errors. Something went wrong in the hardware. I was using this in a small office with 8-10 users, so maybe that load is too heavy for it. I'll be looking for a more robust solution to replace this one.

I typically use manufacturer-branded firewall systems but for the price, the dependability has been questionable. I am very familiar with using PC's for this task but did not want to invest in a large machine that may lack in ports. Compared to the manufacturer-branded firewall hardware, I can easily install the software on this and get far more bang for my buck!The unit has no fan but the chassis is one big heat sink. The unit does get warm but not hot. It is FAST! Blazing fast! Refresh times are instantaneous! The BIOS features are incredible (American Megatrends). Just use an IODD or a CD/DVD (via USB) to install. It can also be PXE-based installation. Seriously it only took me about 5 mins to get pf up and running.One note, newer manufacturer-branded firewall systems running pf will use VLAN's to manage the switchports, very much like Cisco's 4 port WIC cards. If you remember when the manufacturer-branded firewall for pf had the 4860, each port had it's own assignment, very much like these units. Much easier to navigate through the process of assigning interfaces and certainly takes a burden off the CPU. Also it comes with a wall/VESA mounting plate.So yes, I would recommend this unit. If you know what you are doing with firewalls, this is certainly a great option!

Good product. Professional grade for home use. No manual so for the installation, I had to find the user manual online. Need to have a minimal expertise in setting up this kind of product. Installed it to by pass my cable company router that was not working well, not able to manage all my connected devices. Now everything is working well and I have more control on my home internet. Unsing OPNsense software and all working very well and we have way more options and features such as security, device management, and much more

other then that minor issue everything else was fine. installed pfsense on it myself and it's been quietly humming along for the past week