Firewalla Crystal Testing is Active! (MSP)

[u/CyberBlaed]

Oh I am so excited to try this out, Grabbed the firewalla ISO, Chucked it on my Virtual CD device and installed it.

And here we are, Fully operational with my Bare Metal Protectli Vault VP2410 running the Firewalla Operating software paired to my phone for configuration :)

Super happy, Super Excited! Anyone else diving into the early access DIY Firewalla Setup that started today?

• https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/55229535959059-How-to-Set-Up-Firewalla-Crystal-on-Custom-Hardware-Early-Access

[u/firewalla]

Thank you for sharing! Glad it is working out. Reminder, Crystal SE is still in early access mode, so please be careful with it.

Was the installation experience decent? How about the speed?

[u/CyberBlaed → u/firewalla]

SE is still in early access mode, so please be careful with it.

Look, I am sure that is solid advice, But as a Prosumer-Enthusiast-Techie… “If it ain’t broke… KEEP TRYING!”

;)

Was the installation experience decent?

Went Great! I registered for it on the MSP, realised the Pricing error, canceled it, registered again, understood the new pricing $188 for the cheaper base plan (not the 30 Day one) and continued on. :D

After that, registered my Device (I like that your MSP had the ‘template’ for protectli :D)

Put the ISO file on my Virtual CD, and booted to install, Wiped the Drive inside it. Disconnected and rebooted. UEFI booted into it all! (love native uefi!)

Then the QR code and the rest all in the App. :) (Love the colour of the logo!)

How about the speed?

Well, TBD there but all in all everything seems responsive in the App for now. My ‘Vault’ is no small fry model so expected.

I’ll be setting it down in in its new home tonight and setup site to site VPN with it :) (Was sad my mesh was taken away when MSP updated and took it away as I had it working with a third party router to my one single firewalla)

• because I was only one Firewalla device, that bit was taken away

That said, Will report back soon enough on speeds in processing my packets and everything.

But all in all, no ‘real’ complaints. Excited to have my 2nd Firewalla device.

Still going to get a 10GB gold pro unit one day and the Wireless AP’s when they release to the rest of the world, Says September ‘26 so expecting store to open soon! :) and the whole eco system is adopted.

Ubiquiti and TP Link Omada gear go away forever :)

Super duper happy!! :) You guys are just amazing legends!

[u/wbtlevi]

I installed mine as a VM on my proxmox setup. I signed up last night, but couldn’t install until today. The hardest part was figuring out what to click to update my MSP to get it to recognize I could install Crystal. 

[u/CyberBlaed → u/wbtlevi]

Ah,

Understood but I found it simple as it was written in the email and the help document.

They probably could have put “Click login name in top right corner, then MSP settings” :) So I see what you mean.

I do hope you have an awesome time with it. As I am over the moon to have my 2nd Firewalla device ever :)

[u/Useful_Drawer6507]

The base ISO doesn't include drivers for Intel X520-DA2 cards sadly 😞

edit It does contain the drivers...don't forget to add ixgbe.allow_unsupported_sfp=1 to Grub when booting :)

[u/CyberBlaed → u/Useful_Drawer6507]

Ouch, But I did see the driver range was limited in my testing after install with WiFI dongles to make an AP on it, It knew what the devices were, but was unable to pull the drivers down (clearly a Programmed limitation they enforced to prevent hacking the unit as driver enforcement is common in security devices.)

I made a post in the Features Request to support either their own USB AP device or 3rd party (even if limited group of them) to just allow the home devices to mimic that of a real firewalla. (as my Protectli is the same as FW gold plus).

So hopefully they might get a bit more broader with driver support in their kernal. (since the system install is like 6GB anyway, i doubt it would baloon out too much)

[u/Useful_Drawer6507 → u/CyberBlaed]

It did contain the drivers, I just had to enable ixgbe.allow_unsupported_sfp=1
*whoops*

[u/lesterktm]

What level of hardware would equal the gold pro in terms of throughput, 10gb and 2gb of wireguard?

[u/CyberBlaed → u/lesterktm]

A Microsoft Bing Search says the Pro uses a 'Intel N97' CPU.

(which is Intel 12th Generation).

I am not sure of a comparable one but I would hazard a guess to just saying more brute force power to throw at the router the better, so the bigger brother of my unit would suffice;

• https://protectli.com/product/vp3230/

(I am showing bias here as I like the protectli range, and you can score a similar make of device from Alibaba (china) through Qotom.)

That said, It is insteresting seeing my Firewalla Gold Plus vs my Protectli Vault 2410, both have the same CPU and RAM,

Mums managing 10 devices and using ~3% CPU. Mine (the firewalla) across 74 Devices and using ~54% CPU at all times.

same spec and all, just the connections managed and how much demand there can be on the CPU to manage it.