I am considering purchasing a Firewalla Purple. I am also in the middle of considering a VPN client purchase. Firewalla seems to be able to provide many of the advantages that a VPN client subscription can provide, such as masking my internet history by hiding why IP address (which is my main purpose for wanting a VPN). What it cannot do is to spoof my location to override geographic restrictions. But other than that, are there other major features of a VPN client that I cannot achieve from Firewalla?
I think these are very different options, and both are useful.
Firewalla is a firewall with additional features (IPS/Parental controls/Ad blocking) but doesn’t hide you from anything really (can hide DNS query’s from your ISP but that’s not really hiding much). It doesn’t hide your IP address (without a VPN).
A VPN Client will route all your traffic, encrypted, in a tunnel to a third party and then “access the internet” from there. So DNS and browsing appears to be coming from that location (different IP address).
Firewalla has a VPN Client, so you can route some or all of your traffic through a tunnel and have it appear as coming from the third party location, but you need to buy (or use a free) third party VPN separately.
Firewalla also has a built in VPN Server which lets you tunnel to your home and have it appear as if you are there. You can also use the Client VPN and Tunnel into your home, but have the traffic then tunnel out to the third party and access the internet from there.
Every firewall blocks random incoming requests (someone from Russia trying to open a connection to your PC) - Firewalla is there for things you (or an IOT device) does, that you shouldn’t. So , you click a link in an eMail from BadGuy, and Firewalla blocks it because it’s going to a BadGuy server in China.
A VPN, won’t stop that (though some do have block lists, so could potentially help there too), but I think the 2 options (VPN vs. Firewalla) are an Apples to Oranges comparison.
Not really. Each company has their own little gimmicky features. It’s nice to know it’s yours, period. That is your VPN, not one licenced to you in a data center somewhere through a subscription. Also, unless you are needing to access geographically restricted content. Who cares? My regular IP addresses say LeMont IL. I am in Plano iL… It’s not exact to begin with. Also, your location is SO not private to begin with. I don’t really care telling you where I am. You could figure it out anyway – possible for free. I could.
AFAIK, the VPN client provided by Firewalla can only let you appear to the other Internet users that you are doing this at home, no matter where you actually are. Just like you use a library wifi, connect firewalla VPN client and make the traffic appear to be sent out from home. That means the library won’t know what you are doing, but your home ISP still know it, because they can still trace back to your home.
So it pretty much depends on where your you want the traffic outlet to the internet is, your home or some “anonymous” third party server.
Yeah I am considering a VPN client in addition to Firewalla. So I am trying to see what added benefits it can give (if any) since Firewalla can do most of what I need a VPN for. Geography restrictions/masking is the only think I can think of, looking to see if there are others. Perhaps torrenting? I won’t be able to hide torrenting from my ISP using Firewalla right?
If you want to hide what you’re doing on the net, use a VPN, firewalla is well, a firewall.
Trying to hide from your ISP is like trying to turn on the hose without getting it wet. Mostly true. Short of resteicting your life to only fully encrypted sites. Which would make life incredibly frustrating.
A big plus not mentioned so far, if you have a laptop and get out of the house, a VPN client will offer you some privacy “on the road” . Most good VPN clients work on smartphones and PC/Macs.
I look at Firewalla and VPN clients as different, though overlapping, tools in the tool box.
The problem with client VPNs is that you are trusting that company not to log your activity and such. Some have limited free offerings (like ProtonVPN) and are respected overall , which may be a decent option if you don’t travel a lot.
>A big plus not mentioned so far, if you have a laptop and get out of the house, a VPN client will offer you some privacy “on the road” . Most good VPN clients work on smartphones and PC/Macs.
Won’t I be able to do this with Firewalla already when I connect to my home firewall VPN?