Netgate: Difference between revisions

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'''Netgate''', officially Rubicon Communications (LLC), is an American technology company based in Austin, Texas. It is the owner and developer of the {{Wplink|PfSense|pfSense}} firewall project and other networking products.

While Netgate has contributed to BSD, the operating system on which its firewall pfSense is based on, the company has been criticized in recent years for its stance toward the open-source community.

===Consumer and licensing changes===

In a controversial decision, Netgate discontinued free access to pfSense Home+ Lab,<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 Oct 2023 |title=Addressing Changes to pfSense Plus Home+Lab |url=https://www.netgate.com/blog/addressing-changes-to-pfsense-plus-homelab |url-status=live |access-date=22 Mar 2025 |website=[[Netgate]]}}</ref> a version previously available at no cost, requiring users to migrate to CE or a paid model. This change was made without prior notice, leading to criticism from the community.

===Security concerns with WireGuard implementation===

In 2021, Jason Donenfeld, the creator of WireGuard, reviewed pfSense’s WireGuard implementation and identified multiple security flaws.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Jim |date=18 Mar 2021 |title=WireGuard Removed from pfSense® CE and pfSense® Plus Software |url=https://www.netgate.com/blog/wireguard-removed-from-pfsense-ce-and-pfsense-plus-software |url-status=live |access-date=22 Mar 2025 |website=[[Netgate]]}}</ref> His review was highly critical, highlighting serious vulnerabilities that raised concerns about the security of Netgate's implementation.

===Targeting other projects===

Netgate's co-founder, Jamie Thompson, has publicly criticized competing projects including OPNsense, a fork of pfSense.{{Citation needed}} OPNsense, which is endorsed by the developers of m0n0wall (the project from which pfSense originated), was also the target of a parody website,<ref>{{Cite web |title=OPNSense |url=https://www.opnsense.com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314132836/https://www.opnsense.com/ |archive-date=14 Mar 2016 |access-date=22 Mar 2025 |website=}}</ref> allegedly created by Netgate. OPNsense had to file a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to gain control of the disputed domain.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 Nov 2017 |title=Netgate / pfSense acts in bad faith |url=https://opnsense.org/opnsense-com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250321054706/https://opnsense.org/opnsense-com/ |archive-date=2025-03-21 |access-date=22 Mar 2025 |website=[[OPNSense]]}}</ref>

Netgate's notable product line is pfsense. It offers both free and paid support tiers for its pfsense software, which runs as an operating system and is installed using an iso like any other OS. It also offers bespoke hardware appliances with pfsense preinstalled, with varying levels of power and capability.

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