Improve Privacy and Protect Your Family, With the Firewalla Purple SE
Firewalla Purple SE
With a Firewalla Purple SE hooked up to your router you get the benefit of fewer online ads, protection against online threats, and even a VPN server. While not wholly suited to use with an ISP-supplied combination modem/router, you’ll still find it is useful enough to control internet access across your network, making it useful as a parental control tool.
If internet privacy and security is something you need for your family or small business, you probably use a combination of software: VPNs, firewalls, ad-blockers, perhaps a secure DNS too.
But what if you didn’t need to install separate apps or make specific configuration tweaks on every device on your network? You’d need a piece of hardware that did the job for you, which the Firewalla Purple SE is designed to do.
I’ve been using the Firewalla Purple SE for a few weeks to find out if it can improve online privacy.
What’s in the Box?
The modest brown cardboard box is a tight squeeze, but the Firewalla Purple SE manages to fit inside regardless. It ships with a USB Type-C power cable, power adapter, and a 1-meter Ethernet cable.
The Firewalla Purple SE itself is around the size of a Raspberry Pi computer and measures 30 x 90 x 60mm (1.18 x 3.54 x 2.36 inches). Meanwhile, the device weighs just 101 grams (3.5oz).
All said, it’s a compact device that effortlessly hooks up to your existing router. Significantly, it’s also small enough to be placed out of sight.
Firewalla Purple SE Device Specification
The purple and white box hides a small single-board computer designed to act as a hardware firewall, albeit with some additional features.
To this end, it features a 4 core 64-bit ARM CPU, with 2GB of RAM and a 16GB eMMC. Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a USB 2.0 port are also present, along with a microSD port. There is also a USB Type-C power connector.
The hardware enables 500 Megabit deep packet inspection, enabling analysis and reporting of data that’s flowing through your router.
The microSD slot seems to be mainly for flashing firmware updates to the Firewalla Purple SE. However, the extensive support pages indicate it can also be used to extend onboard storage for the device.
Meanwhile, the USB port appears to be primarily for tethering a mobile device.
Note that there is also a Firewalla Purple. The model we’re reviewing is a budget “SE” version with slightly more modest specs and no Wi-Fi.
Setting Up the Firewalla Purple SE With Your Network
One of the key features of the Firewalla Purple SE is that is supports multiple connection types. Unfortunately, this is also a key weakness.
The options are:
It needs to supplant a standard router to get the most out of the device. The fact is, most people who need a device like the Firewalla Purple SE are going to be using an ISP router. Given that, Simple/DHCP mode is how the device was tested for this review.
Set up is via the mobile app; more on that below. It is surprisingly swift, too—there is no noticeable interruption in internet speed when connecting the Firewalla Purple SE to the router.
(Obviously where the Firewalla Purple SE requires cables to be disconnected from the router, this will not be the case.)
Does the Firewalla Purple SE Affect Internet Speed?
I’m fortunate enough to enjoy an internet package with an average download speed of around 132Mbps. Of course, many people don’t have this option.
Testing my internet connection speed before and after connecting the Firewalla Purple SE, I found a small problem. Internet speed dropped by about 5Mbps. The reason is simple: data must be routed and examined through the Firewalla Purple SE.
Now, with a fast package, that’s not a problem. However, the slower your internet speed, the more significant the impact of that speed drop.
Using the Firewalla App
As you’ll have gathered, the Firewalla Purple SE is controlled wholly via the mobile app. This is available for Android and iPhone—we reviewed the Firewalla Purple SE using the Android app.
Using the app, you can enjoy considerable control over your network, specifying which devices are monitored by the Firewalla Purple SE and which are not. In addition, specific types of monitoring and functionality can be enabled or disabled at a network or device level.
For example, if I want to monitor gaming on a specific tablet, such activity can be recorded. Further, gaming can be blocked entirely on that device. Similarly, adult material can be blocked, per-device data recorded, and ports scanned by enabling a single setting.
Thankfully, the app is easy to use, with various options. If anything, it has too many of these, and you can find yourself lost in a maze of configuration settings on a device-to-device basis. Settings that apply to the entire network are easier to manage, but some users may not see it that way.
How Does the Firewalla Purple SE Protect Your Internet Activity?
The Firewalla Purple SE offers several key features designed to protect domestic and small business users.
Primarily, the device can protect your devices from cyber attacks while offering insight into your network (via the mobile app). It offers deep packet inspection hardware for data scanning, intrusion detection, port scanning, and more. The Firewalla Purple SE will also support a tethered connection to a smartphone for monitoring and protection using mobile internet.
It also offers the dynamic content filtering described above, ad blocking, and a built-in VPN server and client (however, these don’t work in bridge mode). There is also a site-to-site VPN feature.
That is an incredible level of protection that standard firewall applications can’t hope to replicate. With all of this controlled via a mobile app, it represents a powerful collection of network-protecting features.
But do they all work? Two features in particular caught my eye for further investigation: ad blocking, and the VPN modes.
Does Firewalla Purple SE Stop Ads? Not All of Them
One of the key selling points of the Firewalla Purple SE is that it purports to limit the number of online ads you will see. To this effect, the little box features default and strict settings. In testing, the difference between the two modes doesn’t convince me.
What’s good about it is that standard adverts from what we’ll call “friendly” websites are blocked as soon as the feature is enabled. However, ads on adult sites, malware sites, torrent sites, gambling sites, and others are not.
Now, it’s fair to say that with these sites restricted from access via the Firewalla Purple SE, the ads would not be seen. The retort to this is simple: if a device claims to have an “ad block” feature, then it should live up to its name.
Firewalla Purple SE’s VPN Features
One of the key features of the Firewalla Purple SE is its use as a VPN. This has two aspects: as a VPN server, and as a VPN client.
Firewalla Purple SE’s VPN Server Mode
In VPN server mode, the device creates an encrypted connection between itself and the internet. This means all of your network activity is encrypted. Set up for this requires an OpenVPN app on your phone or tablet, a configuration file created by the Firewalla Purple SE (or the app, it isn’t clear), and a password. you could then enjoy an encrypted internet connection via the box.
I set this up using the OpenVPN app on Android, which was pretty effortless. I tried streaming video on my phone via Disney+, which worked great, but then I noticed that I was connected to the internet over 4G, rather than one of the routers. This implied that the internet connection was routing via a local transmitter, to a DNS, then to my router, then via the Firewalla Purple SE, then back out via the Firewalla’s DNS, and then to Disney+.
Admittedly, the speed wasn’t bad, but I was unable to connect directly to the Firewalla Purple SE in VPN server mode. The reason? The chosen device configuration, connected to the ISP router in bridge mode, meant that VPN server could not be reached through the router.
Frustrating, but not a surprising limitation under the circumstances.
Firewalla Purple SE’s VPN Client Mode
This has three options. First, it lets you create a VPN site-to-site, that is, with another Firewalla box situated elsewhere. With the same dynamic, you may connect to another Firewalla as a remote access VPN.
The 3rd Party VPN option lets you use any service that uses the OpenVPN, WireGuard, or AnyConnect protocols. This is the feature you’re most likely to want to try.
I set the Firewalla Purple SE up with my NordVPN account using the Firewalla app. This meant first downloading an OVPN config file, creating a profile in the app, adding credentials, then using the config file to choose a VPN server. So far so good, but the feature will only work with the Firewalla Purple SE behaving as a router. If you have it set up in parallel, this feature cannot be used.
Firewalla Purple SE: A Firewall, Ad-Hole, and VPN Device That Enhances Online Privacy
If you know that internet privacy needs improving, then you probably know it is difficult. The Firewalla Purple SE isn’t going to solve everything; it will slow your internet slightly, you may run into problems with the configuration if you’re reliant on an ISP-provided router, and the app can be complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing.
However, the device represents a clear opportunity to take control of your online privacy. It isn’t a panacea, but it is enough to control behaviors, prevent access to unpleasant material, and eliminate most online ads. Improving online privacy means making wholesale changes to how you use the internet, but the Firewalla Purple SE will give you a good start towards online invisibility.
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