Sophos Firewall Home Edition V20 - A Free NGFW for your Homelab and a XG135 to run it on

[@Martin-pj5fe]

Thanks for the video! For anyone reading, I was able to format the SSD by booting Gparted off a USB (using Rufus and formatting as DD) and clearing the existing partition table and formatting the whole SSD as FAT32. After that I booted the Sophos Home Edition off a USB and it let me install no worries

[@KabanZ84]

I can confirm this, installed home on XG125 8 months ago

[@pceslayer6815]

You may have to wipe and then format to EXT4 and try the install again. Wiping wasn't enough for me...

[@KabanZ84]

@@pceslayer6815 you’re right that is not sufficient wipe, I found some guide in the past that using windows installation disk and so format disk in ntfs 😅

[@DilsonAbraham]

Enjoyed the video. Hope to see more of setting up the Sophos and configuring it for various scenarios.

[@BruceSeal]

Great video! As MSPs, we face constant demands for secure, reliable, and efficient systems. The Thirdlane Multi Tenant PBX stands out as a key tool, helping us maintain smooth communication while addressing the challenges of cybersecurity, backups, and system monitoring.

[@kurtfile3564]

Great video. I really appreciated how to set it up for protection.

[@RAM-1976]

Thank you for doing this video Jim, I purchased a XG125 about 9 months ago and not one person over on the Sophos Community could tell me how to get it flashed correctly not even the official tech support guys.

[@DrGr33nBean]

Nice video, well presented. When you did a screen share we could not see any of the details on the admin panel. I think it would be better to be able to see it clearly and test how it looks on a mobile device.

[@SZF123456]

Going to build out a new Proxmox server soon with some additional NICs, moving away from MikroTik as a firewall (keeping it around since I don’t want to buy a new switch). So far testing in virtual environments has been good, can’t wait to put in to practice.

[@fritzlott9409]

The replacement SSD is a M.2 2244. The "2244" indicates the physical size of the M.2.

[@DIYCOMMUNITYHACK]

I have this sophos fw for my home ^_^ It was installed a year and half ago on a base metal small factor hp desktop. 124watts, 1 VoIP, 2 access point and a modem ^_^

[@hallcrash]

Thanks so much. This video gave me so much information. Great work 👍.

[@mikescott4008]

Nice video :) Need to install XG V20 again, I've missed a 135 Rev 3 a few times recently from eBay, so still on a XG 125 Rev3 at the moment. Family member wise, waiting for UK stock of the Unifi Cloud Gateway Ultra. I've deployed a Unifi Express to another family member and pretty ok, but not sure I'd get another. XG230 Rev 2 under my desk with 10Gb SFP+ module card installed, but not using it atm. My XG125 Rev 3 has a pfsense + license on it until 2025. One thing that is dead completely now and I don't think many care is Untangle Home

[@carminenapolitano982]

Great video thank you , Do you made a test of Sophos Home in Virtual Appliance on ESX or Proxmox and done the performance tests

[@DugonaRug]

Hello Jim successfully followed your instruction to get a fully working Home edition on XG 135, also used "SHREDOS" to format XG135 hard drive successfully from and ISO booteed via USB. Could you PLEASE advise on a fan replacement part number so I can replace existing XG 135 fan with a quieter one, that would be greatly appreciated.

[@kevinroth8592]

Hi Jim, thank you for these videos as they are very instructional. I was planning on buying a Sophos XG 125W Rev.3 and installing the Sophos Home OS. I know there are some hurdles with the SSD and MBR not allowing this. My question is: Would I be able to let's say reformat and clean the SSD with something like Hiren's Boot CD and then install the Sophos Home ISO? Just trying to avoid replacing the SSD if possible.

[@JimtheITguy]

I have been told that sometimes an install of Ubuntu loaded first might clear the drive

[@kevinroth8592]

@@JimtheITguy Diskpart clear all worked like a charm. Used Hiren's boot CD for that and then was able to install Sophos XG Home

[@jimw7043]

I just booted a live version of Ubuntu first and used disk tools to delete partitions and then reformat it (overwriting with zeros). Easy peasy.

[@aradoc3951]

oh f.... I bought an XGS 116W in order to install the home edition on it. Now i saw this video, i think i threw a lot of money out of the window. Still no way to install home edition on a xgs?

[@Yabanno]

Thank you for a great video, while I was trying to install it in my XG 135, I got an error stating “Unable to detect primary drive” It is a new m2 drive with 128 GB

[@RealLordy]

What would be the maximum throughput for inter VLAN routing on an appliance with the home edition installed? I tested Sophos XG home edition some years ago and it seemed that throughput was limited to 1Gbps even when using 10Gbps interface (this was a virtualized appliance)

[@JimtheITguy]

Will be dependant on a few things but I don't see why it would be limited unless the virtual NIC drivers didn't support more, I shall have to do some tests

[@TheRochlan]

I am thinking about buying a used appliance, but am confused as to the "you should have received a license key from Sophos at this point" part. How do I get this license key? Do I need to register somewhere on the Sophos website to get one? Do I need to ask the original seller of the used appliance?

[@adamturtle69]

Thank you for the very good video. Sadly the prices for used sophos go up on the last weeks here in Germany. Can i acess old sophos ap with this Home version of the FW?

[@JasonsLabVideos]

ME FIRST !! I win ! Oh, and Opnsense with Zenarmor is free and will act JUST like a NextGen FW with ALL UTM features too !

[@kurtfile3564]

The difference is that Sophos is up to date, Zenarmor free is NOT.

[@JasonsLabVideos]

Um WRONG! new version was just release, try again !@@kurtfile3564

[@SZF123456]

@@JasonsLabVideosjust do what makes you happy 🎉

[@Wahinies]

Zenarmor costs a monthly sub if you want to turn on selective categories though. I run it myself and supplement with Pihole

[@brutosja]

Zenarmor is nowhere close to Sophia XG content and web filtering. You are getting a full enterprise suit with the only limitations being hardware. You can only use 4 cores and 6gb of ram.

[@johnnyjungle]

Hi Jim great video. I have been looking online, but I can't find any info for the XGS 136, in your video you mentioned Home Edition is not supported. Do you know if that is still the case?

[@ivosuste4585]

Thanks for the video. Please note: At the moment you have activated MDR threat feeds, you forgot to click on Apply. Clicking Apply on X-Ops threats later does not apply MDR settings. I'm pretty much annoyed by the fact that ports stayed flipped: Port 1 is 5, and port 2 is 6. I have expected that native Sophos OS would map ports properly. Is there a way to fix that?

[@JimtheITguy]

Sadly the port flip is purely down to the more generic nature of the SW image vs the Hardware Image, you can fix it manually by just setting up the port names in networking but it doesn't make any real world difference

[@marefatechdevelopment4160]

thank you for sharing. How many users or devices can connect to Sophos FW Home Edition? using this hardware XG135. Thanks

[@KevinRussellT]

Just wondering if the XG135 has a dedicated switch chip for the 8 ports?

[@zack.123.]

Great video. I am thinking to run Sophos Home Edition. Currently evaluating the XG 135 vs Protectli hardware. I understand the Home edition limitation of the 4x Core and 6GB Ram. My thinking is while you may not be able to get around the RAM limitation, you may be able to to benefit from the CPU with a more powerful 4 core. Would like to hear any thoughts on this...

[@KevinRussellT]

Thanks so much for posting as I'm looking at putting one of these in my house since I really like the features of our corporate firewall. Would you still recommend the xg135 rev 3 currently?

[@ollienet8655]

Great video thanks for your clear instructions :) I am currently running Sophos XG home on an old HP desktop. Is it possible to import the config into the XG86 that I will be installing Home on?

[@higsreddy]

provide ssd tech specs ,is it msata or nvme also provide a link to purchase available ssd options.also for xg106w which ports we should connect cables

[@sashree138]

Hi, Thanks for the video. I just bought a XGS 136 from ebay. I want to install SG Home on it. Is there a link or video with instructions to wipe and format the disk and install from usb ? Thanks

[@JimtheITguy]

If it's an XGS for now you cannot, I'm trying to get Sophos to make an image that's compatible with the XGS but uses the home license

[@rollothomasy7505]

How does this test perform on the XG 450? I assume the xeon will be a lot better than the atom in the XG135, but the cpu/memory limitations would throttle it a bit - curious by how much though. In terms of home NGFW - is Untangle comparable to Sophos XG home? Even at $150 per year for the full home license, that may be worth while if it gives you all of the NGFW functionality as well as full access to your hardware.

[@JimtheITguy]

It's on the list

[@rollothomasy7505]

@@JimtheITguy Awesome! I just snagged myself an XG 450 Rev 2 so very interested in the results. Great videos BTW - extremely informative!

[@trevorpowdrell5474]

Does this all apply to the XG135 v2 ? From the spec sheet the main difference seems to be vga instead of hdmi and an older cpu C2538 instead of the C3558.

[@JimtheITguy]

It applies to most XG/SG appliances on the whole

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

Just a quick question. Why go for an appliance that costs more than a mini dual ethernet pc?

[@KevinRussellT]

One reason I'm looking at this option is because of the 8 ports. If I was to use a pc, I'd either have to buy many more nics or an additional managed switch which would be the same cost

[@Dave-ns7nn]

I'd like to add that the 2nd hand market is good too. You can pick up an old Sophos XG for a fraction of the price if you're lucky.

[@robertyoder7178]

i got it to load, after reboot, it then it asked for a password, the keyboard stopped working at that point, except for a couple strings of gibberish as i was trying to get anything to come out, then back to nothing ...... both keyboards i tried are fine hooked up to computers.

[@robertyoder7178]

everything is connected like the video, except no network cables plugged in, is this the problem ? how can that be the problem ?

[@JimtheITguy]

Plug in network cables and goto the admin page, it should then run the setup wizard

[@robertyoder7178]

@@JimtheITguy i got it going, i had a "." separating the last "16" and "4444" instead of a ":" in the address

[@danielshirilla1822]

Do you know if the internal AP of the 135W works with XG home?

[@JimtheITguy]

It doesn't, but it's not a great AP so not missing out on much

[@linearburn8838]

try a usb to hdmi adapter on the newer box

[@ayhangunay1178]

Hi, can install the Sophos Home Version to a XGS appliance ?

[@JimtheITguy]

Not currently due to changes in the switching chipset in the XGS

[@ayhangunay1178]

Thank you for the quick answer@@JimtheITguy

[@johnharrison712]

But doesn't they only allow so many firewall rules and so many IP Address? I know I have more than 50 devices/ip on my home network.

[@JimtheITguy]

That was the case on the UTM based system, the SFOS(XG) system is limited to 4 Cpu cores and 6 Gb Ram, no IP limits or rule limits

[@johnharrison712]

@@JimtheITguy Sweet, I wish it was vCPU and 8GB so it can take normal hardware. I don't think anyone runs in their environment or desktop 4/6

[@u1f98a]

@@johnharrison712 From the website "Home Edition is limited to 4 cores and 6 GB of RAM. The computer can have more than this, but Sophos Firewall Home Edition will not be able to utilize it."

[@johnharrison712]

@@u1f98a Yes who who installs 6GB of ram into a computer these days the bare minimal should be 8GB, you can go by a single 8GB DIM instead of buy a 4GB and 2GB stick. This is why I like pfSense

[@Saganis]

@@johnharrison712 From my expierence, it does not matter. Sophos uses Linux and the OS does not eat up the 6 GB RAM. Therefore you can stick 8 GB RAM into your hardware, it will only be utlize 6 GB by the OS, but in the end, you will not even notice the difference of 6 vs 8 GB based on what i could see. I run a 8 GB setup at home and are sitting on 55% RAM used.

[@byquartz6227]

you can just install something else e.g. ubuntu server real quick and then Sophos Home will work :)

[@PiotrK2022]

@JimtheITguy Mgm, "free", for sure... I installed it, go to licensiing and what's the status? Evaluation, 15.01. 2025, so indeed - free as fuck... It was free few tears ago...

[@jimw7043]

I just bought six more ebay. They're so cute. I'm an idiot.