Can I Upgrade Old Firewalls with Custom Firmware?
Asked by
TechNerdy42
Hey everyone! I recently stumbled upon some old firewalls—like Palo Alto and FortiGates—in our storage while cleaning up. We even have the chance to take them home and use them personally instead of just tossing them out. It got me thinking: Is it actually feasible to flash custom firmware on these appliances, like OPNsense, to give them a new lease on life? Has anyone tried this or have any experiences to share? Thanks! :)
Answers
Most enterprise hardware isn’t really compatible with open-source firmware like OPNsense due to their custom ASICs or being built on non-x86 platforms. They might turn your electricity into heat but not much else at home! A $100 Mikrotik will likely outperform an old Palo Alto that's capped at 500 Mbps.
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I once installed pfSense on a decommissioned Check Point firewall, and it ran smoothly for learning purposes. Just be prepared for the noise from those high-speed fans since they are built for the data center!
LearningLizard: True! For education, it's definitely smarter and cheaper to run a virtual machine.
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Generally speaking, it's tricky given the custom hardware involved. You rarely find compatible firmware images for these older models.
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I've heard of folks flashing something like OpenWRT on a Fortigate 50E, but results can vary a lot. It’s definitely hit or miss!
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You might want to check your internet speed against these older devices. If your ISP's speed has increased since the firewalls were made, they may struggle to keep up!
SpeedsterGeek: I actually use OPNsense on a 10+ year old Sophos firewall without issues as long as the specs are good enough!
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NetworkNinja13: Yeah, and often these devices won't even boot unsigned binaries! Definitely a hurdle.
DataWhiz29: Exactly! If you're using them through work, it's usually easier to get help from the vendor for changes.