How to optimize Home Software UTM 9

Thought I'd make one final post in this thread.

I ended up canceling the Verizon service, altogether. I got nothing but a runaround from them. My first bill was NOT what they promised and I got contradictory information each time I called. I currently have a Comcast Business connection rated at 75/15 Mbps but it never drops below 90/17 Mbps (w/o IPS). I upgraded the CPU in my trusty, old Optiplex XE ($10) so it's now a little faster @ 3.33GHz.

I now get...

... so now I'm satisfied with the hardware performance since I'm getting all of the bandwidth that I'm paying for with IPS enabled.

Yeah, so according to clockspeed is king solution you could implement / use a Intel Core i9-9900 by default or OC round about 6Ghz. ;)

Nope, but I think your Core2Duo would slow down much other parts and features. I think a little bit newer CPU would be the better choice....even so watching for a higher clock speed. more than 4 cores would not give you the ultimate joker and boost, but I would look for a i5 or i7 >3Ghz and a generation of i5/i7-3000 or -4000....it will also depend on the money you willing be spend to...

The first box I used for a couple of years had a newer i5 CPU. I acquired two Optiplex XE boxes at no cost and decided to try them. I saw no difference in performance (other than bench-marking) so I  repurposed the i5 box.

The difference between the Core2Duo and the i7-3770 that I tested was also not noticeable with my usage. I'll stick with the old Optiplex XE boxes until they go kaput. They are built like tanks.

The first box I used for a couple of years had a newer i5 CPU. I acquired two Optiplex XE boxes at no cost and decided to try them. I saw no difference in performance (other than bench-marking) so I  repurposed the i5 box.

The difference between the Core2Duo and the i7-3770 that I tested was also not noticeable with my usage. I'll stick with the old Optiplex XE boxes until they go kaput. They are built like tanks.

optiplex or hp elitedesk - they would survive a nuclear war.

but why do so much people criticise the old utm120 boxes that they aren´t able to handle newer utm software versions especially in handling ips, av proxy, webprotection, etc?

the sg115 for example has an atom e3827 with 1,74ghz - the old utm120 an atom n270 (?) with 1,6ghz...yes, the e3827 has two physical cores and the n270 only one with HT - but I think especially VPN and de-&encryption your better choice would be a newer cpu...clock speed has a big impact also for the performance overall.

also it would depend if you have many clients behind your firewall...for home usage maybe a dual core would be enough. :) how many clients and traffic are behind yours?

The UTM is in a home-lab environment. There are never more than four local or VPN users. I do host a few websites on different servers along with a FTP server and an email server; all of which are behind the UTM.

I use the following UTM services & protections:

• DNS
• DHCP
• VPN
• Network Protection
  • Firewall
  • NAT
  • IPS
• Web Protection
• Email Protection
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Webserver Protection

 Here is a typical day for the Core2Duo E8600:

A bit of history, please search the forums for posts by William (at least 5 years ago but still relevant), he did a lot of research into the IPS on on the UTM.

For home users :-

1/ remove all unused IPS patterns

2/. the fastest multi-core CPU you can get

3/. turn  off power saving eg so the CPU is going flat out otherwise the IPS does not ramp up the CPU processor speed.

4/. set IPS instances to be CPU cores -1

The IPS in the UTM is still single threaded. If you have a number of users running speed tests you will cause the CPU to ramp up and the link run at full or close to full speed.

Ian