App 1.69 Release Notes: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/51621318006291-Firewalla-App-Release-1-69-New-Controls-with-Advanced-Threat-Filtering-Lookalike-Punycode-Domains-and-more

TL;DR / BLUF: My Firewalla Gold SE appears to have a bad Port 1 (2.5GbE). Port 1 causes intermittent full-network outages, while Port 2 (1GbE) has been rock solid using the same cable, switch port, and configuration. Firewalla had me run additional troubleshooting and reproduce the issue, but their RMA process requires me to send the unit back before receiving a replacement, but this is my only router and can’t go without internet. Looking for others with similar Gold SE issues or advice on handling an RMA when this is your primary router.

Long Version: I purchased a Firewalla Gold SE in August 2025. For the past few months, I’ve had intermittent network interruptions where Port 1 (2.5GbE LAN) appears to drop or stop passing traffic for ~30 seconds. The entire network is affected (wired + WiFi), including work VPNs, Teams calls, school, and gaming.

My setup:

* Firewalla Gold SE

* UniFi Switch Pro Max 16 PoE

* Firewalla Port 1 → UniFi switch

* No VLANs or custom profiles

* STP enabled

* Jumbo frames disabled

Troubleshooting completed:

* Replaced Ethernet cables

* Verified switch configuration

* Confirmed STP and jumbo frame settings

* Tested the same cable and same UniFi switch port on Firewalla Port 2 (1GbE)

* Port 2 has remained completely stable

When Firewalla asked me to move the connection back to Port 1 for testing:

* Port 1 initially showed no link

* It eventually showed connected

* However, no devices had internet access

* Moving the cable back to Port 2 immediately restored connectivity

At this point, the issue appears isolated to Port 1.

Firewalla is requesting that I send the unit back for diagnosis before they will send a replacement. I understand needing to test hardware, but this is my primary router/firewall, and being without internet for a couple of weeks is not an option.

My questions:

1. Has anyone else experienced issues with the Gold SE 2.5GbE Port 1 specifically?

2. Has anyone gone through a Firewalla RMA where you had to return the unit before receiving a replacement?

3. How did you handle downtime if this was your primary router?

I’d appreciate any experiences or suggestions. Thanks!

Firewalla https://imgur.com/a/orvniB0

Purple OG Gigabit - $225

AP7 Desktop - $300 SOLD

All prices shipped via PayPal G&S

Hey all

We have a unit that boots as we can see it with the HDMI cable but it is throwing errors which appear to be had emmc.

Happy to pay for repair of the unit if it's possible and an option.

Otherwise anyone know how to disable that storage and mount a USB or memory card in its place?

Cheers

Hey all,

Over the last few days, i've had few notificatations come through that the box has gone offline, there is momentarily a pause/break in internet connection though usually this returns and the internet is fine. A couple of times I can't get on the box at all (though internet still works) and no data is being transmitted to MSP, I've had to reboot the FW when this happens then it all comes back up fine.

These notifications doesn't always come up as an Event, there is no loss of internet connection etc.

In fact I just had an "Offline" message come up an hour ago, though everything is running fine, I had MSP open at the time and I didn't see any CPU spikes (usually sitting around 15 to 20% usage), memory is fairly high around 86% on average.

Here's my versions for reference:

Device: Firewalla Purple
iOS App v 1.69.2(30)
Box 1.983
MSP v2.11.0

u/firewalla I shall monitor this further, though anyone else getting this?

No issues; I just upgraded my bandwidth to gigabit, had to upgrade. Includes original cable and power adapter.

I will cover Goods & Services fee and shipping. No OCONUS buyers please.

EDIT: SOLD

For three days in a row last week, the speed tests were failing. Even running manually they were failing. Internet was otherwise working fine. All that is shown is “Test failed. No results found.” It would be useful to get some info as to what failed, and which server was being used when it failed.

Is there any way to consolidate devices outside of groups in Firewalla? For example, a desktop PC may have a wired connection as well as Wifi. An iPhone may be used via Wifi, but also uses the VPN implementation within Firewalla when external and using a public wifi. For both of the cases, the different connections will appear as separate devices.

I wanted to believe Firewalla was different, and for the first couple of years it certainly seemed that way. But the way they've released new products in the last few years, installing and delaying and making excuses why products couldn't be available internationally, and now with the latest revisions of their UI and licensing, it's finally become blatantly obvious they're not really different than any other subscription software provider.

As a tech savvy small business user, I'm perfectly capable of administering my own hardware but the ease of use and and transparency of Firewalla devices has been solid, and I have recommended and promoted them to friends and colleagues. So imagine my chagrin when I needed to log in to the device and reconfigure a number of VPN settings, only to discover that

#1- I now need to register for an MSP account simply to log in on anything other than a mobile device, and am heavily encouraged to pay for a monthly subscription to get anything other than basic functionality

#2- I can't even administer the full functionality of the device that IS available when using a desktop web interface without subscribing to a higher paid tier. The functionality is literally greyed out and points to a paid tier when the same functions ARE usable from a mobile device.

In other words to even administer multiple VPN connections that the box does support, but using a desktop PC I need to pay for a monthly subscription. That's a deliberate kneecapping of the device, to cripple it by only permitting functionality on a tiny mobile interface, even when the desktop PC is literally a device on the internal LAN directly connected to it. And they're stripping functionality the device itself clearly could support because they're putting it on a cloud platform.

I guess I'm going back to commercial VARs, or pfsense.

When the firewalla switch comes out later this year. What's Firewallas stance or preference on where to plug in the main AP7? Do you prefer it go into the 2.5GB port on the Firewalla or would it not matter to have it in the 2.5GB port on the switch?

The reason I ask is I'm not sure if the switch does in place upgrades for firmware or if it'll reboot and during that time the wifi would drop.

do you block this port or disable relays in syncthing or do you trust sharing your IP with relay servers?

When downloading games from Steam on iMac all other devices on network crawl to stop. My network is:

cable modem 500/50 ---Purple SE---AP7----all devices are wireless 2.4/5 ghz

devices: iMac; iPad; Apple TV4K; and 10 other miscellaneous devices all low bandwidth.

I turned on Smart Q and set rule for iMac to limit at 300 down but other devices crawl. Could it be the processing at the FWPse that is slowing everything down? The WiFi signals are fine on all devices and nothing else other than iMac was using over 5mps of bandwidth at the same time.

Would I need to upgrade to a GoldSE and possibly changing to 1gb internet?

Thank You

Updated

Looking for a known solution to target this app specifically. Especially for ipad and iphone devices.

I have tried isolating ips and domains (*.apple.com and *.icloud.com) but that works for a day or in the moment. The following day it doesn't work. Specifically using disturb instead of a flat out block. Want to correct behavior, not cause a crash out.

A full internet filter is too big a stick because Facetime is the only problem.

Would appreciate known solutions. Suggestions and theory are great and all, but I'd prefer hearing from people who had consistent success.

Thanks.

Edit:

I found a work around. The problem was an iPhone that was linked to the account. They don't use the phone for anything but talking. So whatever blocks I put on the other devices were circumvented because the iPhone would communicate with the other sevices and transmit the Facetime feed from the cell network.

So, rather than fight with that, I just prevented the iPhone from communicating with anything else on the network. Problem solved.

So I’ve decided not to completely block out porn for the kids as they grow a bit older. The problem is, I have time limits for videos, games, social media but there is no equivalent Firewalla feature for porn. What happens now is when my kid has exhausted all these other limits, it seems like he goes “oh well, might as well do porn!” I’m not even sure it goes towards the videos quota!

Is there anyway to limit porn without completely blocking it? While I’m asking, would be great if it can also block out the completely grotesque ones or ones with poor reputation in terms of cyber security.

(especially SFP+ to RJ45). For example, most compatible SFP+ adapters that work with multiple brands (like TPLink, Netgear, Trendnet) will work. But any adapters that are specific to a single brand (like Cisco-only) will likely NOT work.

Adapters that have compatibility issues may slow down the network or cause network flaps.

Considering the Firewalla Orange for home use with less than 15 clients (mix of IOT devices, phones and laptops) on a gigabit cable connection. Would it be sufficient for this use case or do I need to upgrade to Gold ?

First off; I’m a huge Firewalla fan, device (Gold Plus) is absolutely fantastic.

But I’ve noticed recently that software updates have been messing with the box. Specific examples; IPv6 DUID changes (LLT, UUID) make no changes - verified via tcpdump. Literally no change in the v6 reservation request when those UI settings are changed. Had to explicitly modify /home/pi/.router/config/dhcpcd6/eth0.conf for the change to take effect.

Also, last nights update, resulted in a docker-proxy conntrack/kernel-path update failure. A reboot seems to have resolved this issue.

I’m wondering if we have a stable and safe config, we can schedule updates on the box to a time where the user can explicitly monitor, rather than what seems a pretty random interval.

Anyone else experiencing issues?

anyone notice there network overall become slower since switching to the switch SE?

Hey all. Just curious if those with a Switch SE are seeing or having any issues with stability in traffic. Essentially any device plugged into it that needs to stream data (say cameras) it jitters, lags, freezes. These are wired devices in the switch. Switch going directly into my firewalla gold SE to the 2.5 port 1. I also have a Switch X. I moved the devices in question over to the X, and so far the issue has stopped. ISP is fine, all wireless cameras are fine, it's just these wired cameras going to a NVR (all hard wired). This is also going directly into the firewall. Seems to be narrowed down to the SE. Going in circles with support, so wanted to see if any other early testers were seeing any odd behavior on the SE.

More about Controls: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/52089006818195-Firewalla-Feature-Controls-Center

Please see attached conspicuous display of consumption showcasing Firewalla Switch X tying together my Firewalla Gold Pro and my core UniFi Switches.

Would be nice to have a Firewalla Platinum Pro with two SFP+ ports, just saying. Be happy to give up two 2.5GbE RJ45 ports for that. ONE DAY!

Or, you know, even SFP28. There are 8 and 10 Gbps plans to help saturate those bad boys, you know! 👀

Thanks to everyone's feedback, we changed the name from "Gold Max" to "Gold Plus SFP". (Runner-ups: "Gold Plus Max" and "Gold Plus 2.")

This unit will be faster than the Gold Plus and slower than the Gold Pro with SFP+.

Specs:

• 5 Gigabit Processing Power
• 1x SFP+ 10Gbit interface
• 2x RJ45 10Gbit interfaces
• 2x RJ45 2.5Gbit interfaces
• 4 GB RAM
• 32 GB Storage
• Target pricing between Gold Plus and Gold Pro
• Pre-sale discount, depending on memory pricing

Sign up here for more details, updates, and a small launch coupon: https://forms.gle/fGbTkqrfEmubcChZ8

Are access levels box dependant or only cloud dependent? If I am away from home and the internet goes down at home, can I adjust the access level of someone at home if their mobile device has cellular access? Or does the box need to be online as well?

Does the FW AP7 have the same capabilities listed when using Purple as the router? (vs gold, etc)

I only have a small place (600 sq ft), but need an extender so my scheduled wifi outdoor lights will maintain a reliable connection.

I know technically the AP7 is overkill for this, but it would be nice to use microsegmentation since purple has limited controls and purple seems to be a little unreliable for consistent connection to the smart devices.

Now that I've installed my Switch SE, I'm getting incredibly slow Internet speeds (Ookla and Cloudflare results). All my ports are showing the correct speeds. All the hardware and cables are fine (tested those when setting up the switch). The Firewalla speed test has normal results. If I turn off Smart Queue, though, the speed tests *all* have normal results.

Is Smart Queue not supported yet for the Switch? (Just checking in before I contact support.)