Mercury Brik pfSense Appliance

Mercury Brik pfSense Appliance. 1.5Ghz VIA C7. 3 x Ethernet. 50-200 users. 21Mbps 3DES IPSec. 67Mbps AES IPSEC.

The Mercury Brik pfSense Appliance is designed to fulfill the demands of Small- and Medium-Businesses requiring an advanced firewall solution that offers the highest level of protection, while allowing expansion of the network infrastructure without compromising its security.

pfSense is a firewall and router distribution based on FreeBSD. Features of pfSense include:

  1. Stateful inspection firewall
  2. IPSec VPN Server
  3. SSL-based OpenVPN Server
  4. Multi-Wan (http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Multi-WAN_Version_1.2.x)
  5. Load Balancing (http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Multi_WAN_/_Load_Balancing)
  6. Failover or Hardware Redundancy (CARP) (http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Configuring_pfSense_Hardware_Redundancy_(CARP)).

The Mercury Brik pfSense router is optimized for Small and Medium Business (SMB) environment, with 50-200 users. It supports 200,000 concurrent sessions with 512MB RAM. It is perfect for connecting branch offices through IPSec VPN or OpenVPN tunnels.

Suggested Deployment

  1. The Mercury pfSense firewall can be used as a packet capture appliance. It is ideal for portable monitoring and incidence response applications.
  2. Another common deployment of the pfSense Mercury firewall is VPN server: either IPSec or OpenVPN. It has outstanding AES-256 VPN performance due to the Padlock ACE built-in hardware.
Price: $499.99
$499.99
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SKU: Brik PF3V700D-VR15U
Specifications
Performance* Mercury Brik Highlights
Suggested Users 50-200

Stateful Inspection Firewall enforces security policies and resists malicious attacks.

Easy configuration, security management and monitoring of network infrastructure.

Network Address Translation (NAT) protects and hides internal network information from the outside world.

VPN offers significant savings over leased connections between branches or remote offices.

Mulit-WAN load balancing optimizes usages of internet resources.

Failover provides reliable and un-interrupted internet connectivities.
Firwall Throughput 90Mbps
Concurrent Connections  200,000
3DES IPSec Throughput  21Mbps
AES IPSec Throughput  67Mbps
Hardware Specifications  Mercury Brik
Systemboard  3V700D-VR15U
CPU  1.5Ghz VIA C7
Memory  512MB
Storage  1GBCF
Ethernet  3 x 10M/100M
Dimensions 187mmx130mmx52mm
Cooling  Fanless
Hardware Warranty  1-year limited
Support Contract  Mercury Brik
Standard Support  1-year

* Performance depends on network environment and configuration of the firewall.

Why the Brik VIA C7 for pfSense?

  1. True Embedded System Design.
    • Small and Compact Case. The form factor of the Brik is about 7.4 inches by 5.1 inches by 2.1 inches in dimensions. It weighs less than 3 lbs.
    • Low Power-Consumption, about 18W.
    • Designed to run from a compact flash with no moving parts.
  2. High performance: VIA C7 is about 75% of a Pentium 4 without the heat.
  3. Three (3) 10/100 Ethernet NICs with optional Intel Gigabit Ethernet, enough for a NET, a LOCAL, and a DMZ.
  4. Support and Warranty
    • Extensive accessories including wall-mount kit.
    • Depend on the maintenance options, we will walk you through the VPN server setup to installation of multi-wan load balancing and failover.
    • One (1) year industry standard warranty. A single contact for both hardware and software issues.

Performance and Cost? Since pfSense appliances have been used as firewalls and Internet routers, it is only fair to compare against Cisco products. We have chosen VPN performance to see how the 1.5Ghz VIA C7 stack up.

Router Brik VIA C7 Cisco 2801 Cisco 2811 Cisco 2821
AES IPSec 67Mbps 30 Mbps 35 Mbps 90 Mbps
3DES IPSec 21Mbps 30 Mbps 35 Mbps 90 Mbps
CPU VIA C7 RM5261A RM5261A RM7065C
Speed in Mhz 1000 250 350 466
Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS 1620 350 490 1380
Cost $504.99 $2,002.34 $2,279.79 $3,142.42

Notes:

  1. Cisco Performance data come from here
  2. Cisco router costs include the IOS Security Bundle (SEC/K9) and are typical found on the Internet.
  3. Cisco CPU information come from http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Cisco.
  4. Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS results for the RM5261A come from http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/027/DSA00483217.html.
  5. Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS result for the RM7065C comes from http://www.pmc-sierra.com/products/details/rm7065c/ .
  6. Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS results for the VIA C7 and Intel Celeron-M/Pentium-M are optimized by declaring 64-bit integers. See http://homepage.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/dhrystone%20results.htm for an explanation.

Support? We are definitely not comparable to the outstanding Cisco Smartnet support program. But, our technical support will get you up and running the pfSense appliance in most typical firewall scenarios. We will resolve all compatibility and hardware problems under a liberal warranty program.

Ease of Use. Although pfSense is web-based GUI, it still requires some understanding of networking concepts to fully utilize its features. However, it does not require a CCNA or equivalence. And our support program is designed for basic and typical setups, including IPSec and OpenVPN. We will get yours up and running.