Protectli Vault V1410-4 Port, Micro Appliance/Mini PC - N5105, 4X 2.5G NICs, 8GB LPDDR RAM on-Board, 32GB eMMC on-Board

I bought the Protectli Vault V1410-4 Port to use as a small home-network appliance, mainly for firewall/router duties, and it has been a very solid choice. The N5105 processor is powerful enough for typical home or small-office routing, firewall rules, VLANs, VPN use, and general network segmentation without feeling overbuilt or wasteful. The four 2.5G NICs are the biggest selling point for me, since they give a lot more flexibility than a basic consumer router. The unit is compact, quiet, and feels well-built. I also like that it is not locked into one specific software ecosystem, so it works well for people who want to run something like OPNsense, pfSense, or other network-focused software. I run OPNsense myself without issue. The 8GB RAM model is enough for a lot of practical firewall/router use cases, though heavier users may want to consider more RAM or storage depending on what they plan to run. Pros: Four 2.5G Ethernet ports give excellent flexibility Was able to easily set-up a system to block most ads that show up on my phone's browser Compact and quiet Good performance for home lab, firewall, and router use Works well with open-source firewall software Much more capable than most consumer routers Cons: More expensive than basic mini PCs or consumer routers Setup is not beginner-friendly if you are new to firewall software 8GB RAM is fine for routing/firewall use, but may be limiting for heavier services You need to be comfortable managing your own network settings Overall, this is a great little appliance if you want more control over your home or small-office network. It is probably overkill for someone who just wants plug-and-play Wi-Fi, but for a firewall/router, VLANs, VPNs, and a more serious home network setup, it is a strong option.

I decided I wanted to deploy Opnsense at the perimeter of my home network and chose to use a mini pc I had laying around. I found out quickly that Opnsense or more specifically the Freebsd that it uses as its base operating system does not play well with Realtek network card drivers. Everything I was reading was saying that Intel NIC's are the way to go with Opnsense. After having performance issues and crashing due to load (I couldn't even run Zenarmor in blocking mode without crashing my system), I decided to look for a better solution. Thankfully I found the Protectli Vault purpose built appliance. I got the V1410 4 port model, which not only replaced what I had but added additional functionality with those four 2.5GB INTEL NICs! Now instead of just having two network zones (WAN and LAN) I have two more zones to play with. The unit has been working great with Opnsense, with 3 current zones enabled and Zenarmor in blocking mode! It is fanless (so quiet) and although it does get warm to the touch, it does a great job of dissipating the heat. The thing that I think impressed me the most about this appliance is that it comes with everything you need to get started, including the spare parts you need to install your own accessories. I had a 500GB NVMe drive lying about and I figured why not save a few dollars and install it myself. Protectli included the screw I needed for mounting as well as thermal pads to help dissipate the heat. They even have videos available that walk you through the full installation! For an accessory that I didn't even buy from them! What an incredible level of support! I can't say enough how impressed I am with Protectli as a company and with the quality and value of this appliance. I absolutely love it and would highly recommend it to anyone doing a similar deployment. And I recommend getting the four port unit for the small additional cost just to have the flexibility of more firewall zones.

I've been running the Protectli Vault line since I got the FW1 back in 2017. That unit still runs fine, but I'm upgrading my wired network speed to 2.5Gbps and picked this model as a replacement. I was not disappointed! The V1410 arrived exactly as spec'd, and I installed my OS of choice (Debian) easily following their detailed instructions. I swapped the new unit for the original and am now running my whole-house Internet through it. I highly recommend this device for anyone looking for a fanless server/appliance solution.

Powerful but you can fry an egg on it! It gets HOT! Running Untangle (whatever they call it now) and it works great, not even breaking a sweat but it runs hot! I put a USB fan on top to help with the heat. It's built very well and I've always had good luck with this brand.

Runs OPNsense perfectly. Have a bunch of policies and adguard blocks running. Hangs around at 75% memory utilization under full load.

I purchased the Protectli V1410 to serve as a home network firewall appliance. The physical box is built like a brick...a lead brick. Thanks Protecti for a solid look and feel piece of equipment. It would fit right in place within a datacenter. Nothing is flimsy about this device. Being solid metal, I was concerned about heat displacement with just passive cooling, but found the outside temp manageable...as in a bit warm, but not bad. No issues placing next to other devices. This device handles FW'ed traffic much better than my wireless/(4port)eth router. Running OPNsense with each port (4) configured as separate networks. Speed throughput to the internet improved for steaming devices, NAS backups and internet access noticeably improved, with only 10-11% of CPU usage. There were less expensive alternates I could've chosen, however this unit is proving to be worth the cost. The saying "you get what you pay for" is appropriate for this purchase.

Works very well, love it for OPNsense HOWEVER, im not sure if mine is a defect but the ports on mine are VERY touchy. If you just slightly move the ethernet cable and it loses signal. I have tried multiple ethernet cables, both ones I made and pre fabricated ones. I am not sure *why? This happens but its like the port itself doesn't hold the cable in tightly enough

Fanless. Silent. Thoughtfully designed case made from quality materials, providing generous heat sink surface area. USB serial console works great, and is a nice touch. Seems like a good value for the money.

Installation war ganz einfach, OpnSense als Firewall zwischen meinen Homelab & ISP zuzüglich Fallback auf 5G wenn der Internetprovider mal wieder nichts gebacken bekommt.

I was looking to replace my home lab firewall with a solution that would offer both high performance and low power consumption. The Protectli Vault V1410 turned out to be an excellent choice. It looks solid and well-built, and it comes equipped with four 2.5Gbps Intel network interfaces, which I prefer over Realtek. I installed OPNsense and had everything up and running within a few minutes.

Ich habe den Protectli bei mir in Betrieb genommen und habe noch ein Problem, das ich mit dem Support klären muss. Ich habe FreeBSD installiert. Beim Reboot geht irgend etwas schief, so dass der Protectli anschließend sehr langsam läuft. Wahrscheinlich irgendeine BIOS-Einstellung. Außerdem wird das Gehäuse ziemlich heiß. Ich werde die Bewertung peu a peu ergänzen.

Ce petit ordinateur/pare-feu est tres puissant et convient tres bien a mon reseau pour la maison.

Very good product but needs a external fan, when used in a non-climated setting (at room temp 21-23C°). Ordered a noctua fan with an extra usb-power-controller and the FW works flawlessly now. Even with IPS, zenarmor and deep packet inspection active, I didn't notice a single performance dip after upgrading it with the external fan.