pfSense Plus Software Earns AWS Foundational Technical Review Approval
pfSense Tip of the Month: Automatic Configuration Backup
pfSense Plus Software Release Schedule
Netgate® News
Netgate 4100 Product Spotlight
Happy Anniversary to both Netgate and pfSense Software
Holiday Schedule
Newsletter Changes
In Other News
Netgate Employee Featured in a Wall Street Journal Article
TNSR Software Release 22.10 is Here!
We're pleased to announce the release of TNSR vRouter software 22.10 on Thursday, October 27, 2022! It is available for updates and is shipping on Netgate appliances. Our blog and Press Release have the full details.
There are several new features and enhancements in this release. The new features include:
WireGuard remote access and roaming support
Policy Based Routing (ACL Based Forwarding)
Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) support for BGP
Certificate-based authentication for IPsec
IPv6 IPsec tunnel endpoints are now supported
Support for interrupt mode on hardware interfaces
Be sure to read our Release Notes prior to upgrading, and as always, create a backup of your current system configuration before upgrading.
If you've been considering TNSR Software, there are several ways to get a copy to see if it's the right solution for your needs. The first, and probably the most important, thing to remember is that you can always contact us here at Netgate to see if TNSR software is the right fit for what you're trying to solve. Our contact information is at the bottom of this newsletter.
If you would rather try TNSR for yourself, there are several options to choose from. We offer a Home+Lab evaluation version that is available as a Bare Metal Image (BMI) that you can install on a VM or your own third-party hardware. This image is provided for evaluation purposes in a lab for you to see if TNSR is the solution you're looking for.
A final option is TNSR software in the cloud. TNSR offerings are available on both AWS and Azure. Free trials are available to allow you to test it out.
The TNSR software version numbers are based on year.month, so for example, version 22.10 is 2022.October.
The current TNSR software release schedule will be:
23.02 (February 2023)
23.06 (June 2023)
23.10 (October 2023)
pfSense Software Moving Ahead
In case you missed our recent blogs, some changes are coming to pfSense software, both pfSense Plus and pfSense CE. Both are moving to FreeBSD Main and PHP 8.1. Snapshots are currently available for pfSense CE and are coming soon for pfSense Plus.
We have two exciting blog posts covering these changes in more detail. To learn more about why we made these changes and how it positively affects pfSense software, please read our blog pfSense Software is Moving Ahead.
If you would like to learn more about taking advantage of these changes in the current snapshots of pfSense CE software, take a look at our blog CE Snapshots on PHP 8.1 and FreeBSD Main.
pfSense Plus Software Earns AWS Foundational Technical Review Approval
Earlier this month, pfSense Plus software was approved under the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) process. The FTR process is designed to allow AWS Partners, like Netgate, to confirm their development processes are aligned with AWS best practices around the areas of security, reliability, and operational excellence. These practices are designed to ensure the best possible customer experience when using Netgate products on AWS.
Businesses, institutions and organizations are increasingly migrating applications and workloads to the cloud. Whether they want to enjoy the ability to automatically scale capacity up and down, simplify their data storage needs, decrease capital expenditures, increase their global reach, or stop estimating capacity, there are many advantages of cloud usage.
TJ Scholand wrote ablog to explain more about the importance of the FTR approval and the benefits of pfSense Plus in the cloud.
pfSense Tip of the Month: Automatic Configuration Backup
Backups are a recurring theme for this newsletter, and for good reason. If you’ve worked in IT for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced the pain of not having a backup when you needed it.
This month, JD Strong has aquick tip for enabling the ACBfeature in pfSense software, both Plus and CE, that is as easy as 1-2-3, helping you maintain your 3-2-1 Backup Strategy. And, when you’re ready to upgrade to a newNetgate security gateway appliance, migrating using Automatic Configuration Backup is easy. Check out theAutoConfigBackup blog.
As we looked toward the autumn calendar, we realized that vacations and holidays are going to have an impact on both our engineers and our users. In the interest of all involved, we chose to release the next version of pfSense Plus software in January 2023. As stated above in the TNSR Release Schedule, the pfSense Plus software version numbers are year.month, so for example, version 23.01 is 2023.January.
CE versions of pfSense software will remain on the current version numbering schema. The next release of pfSense CE software has not been scheduled, but updates such as moving to FreeBSD Main and PHP 8.1 are continually being added to the CE snapshots and source code repo.
The current pfSense Plus software release schedule will be:
23.01 (January 2023)
23.05 (May 2023)
23.09 (September 2023)
Netgate 4100 Product Spotlight
Great news! We are now offering 6 months of TAC PRO included with any single unit purchase (not High availability) of a Netgate 4100 BASE or Netgate 4100 MAX appliances with pfSense Plus software. This offer (a $199 value) is valid from now until December 31, 2022. You will find the offer under Software Support -> Promo: TAC Professional ($0/6 Mos) when you add it to your cart.
Even more exciting, if you purchase 2 Netgate 4100 appliances for use as a High Availability pair, 1 year of TAC Professional is included. To take advantage of this great offer, please contact Netgate Sales by phone or email to receive a quote.
And if all of this isn't enough, the Netgate 4100 is now available pre-assembled in a rack-mount configuration. Look in the drop down menus for Mount Kit -> Rack Mount installed ($127.00) when ordering.
In many municipalities, 2 Gbps fiber is becoming a reality. Up until recently, 1 Gbps ethernet ports on a firewall were standard and stepping up to 10 Gbps ethernet ports was a large jump in price.
Enter the Netgate 4100. It allows flexible port configuration across four discrete, unswitched 2.5 Gbps RJ-45 ethernet ports and (2) RJ-45 copper / SFP fiber Combo ports. It's a cost-effective solution that isn't a 1 Gbps bottleneck for 2 Gbps fiber connections.
Whether your 2 Gbps connections are for work or pleasure, the Netgate 4100 meets today’s requirements and is a perfect solution to future-proof against tomorrow’s needs.
Happy Anniversary to both Netgate & pfSense Software!
It’s been another great year for both Netgate andpfSense software. Tuesday, September 27th marked 18 years of Netgate supporting the open-source secure networking community. Netgate was born in 2004. pfSense software version 1.0 was released on October 13, 2006.
We’d like to take a moment and thank everyone who has contributed to this success: our customers, our community, and our employees. We’re looking forward to another great year ahead!
Netgate Holiday Schedule
The next holidays Netgate will observe are Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25, 2022 commemorating Thanksgiving in the United States. Sales, Manufacturing, Shipping, and the US offices will be closed, resuming on Monday, November 28, 2022.
Upcoming Netgate Holidays:
Thursday, November 24, 2022 - US Thanksgiving Day
Friday, November 25, 2022 - Day after Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 26, 2022 - Christmas Day (Observed)
Monday, January 2, 2023 - New Year's Day (Observed)
NOTE: TAC Support will be fully staffed and operational during all holidays listed above.
Newsletter Changes
With the upcoming holiday season, we’ve decided to start sending this newsletter out around the middle of the month, rather than the end of the month. We don’t want you to miss the news while you’re on vacation/holiday.
In Other News...
Our own Partner Marketing Manager, TJ Scholand, was featured recently in the Wall Street Journal! The article is focused on TJ's enthusiasm for vintage Land Cruisers. Check out the article and get to know TJ a little bit.
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