The combined firewall and router devices from Firewalla have established themselves over the past few years as the favoured hardware security tools for many enthusiasts and small businesses. The latest firewall that Firewalla launched is the Gold Plus. This is a new 2.5-gigabit firewall, becoming the company's flagship model.  

Firewalla currently offers a full range of products accessible, ranging from the 100 Mbit Red (a little on the slower side) to the $329 Purple, with up to a gigabit of inspection bandwidth, and a few other variations in between. The Gold Plus is the newest addition to the line of products at the top of the range. The Gold Plus will have four 2.5 gigabit Ethernet connections and circuitry that can handle 5 gigabits at once for deep packet inspection. During the pre-buy phase, the ordinary Firewalla Gold will cost $485, but its inspection gear can handle up to 3 gigabits of data. 

“If a router can’t match the speed of an internet connection, users are leaving value and speed on the table,” said Jerry Chen, founder of Firewalla. ”Firewalla Gold Plus is perfect for the fast internet of the future and helps secure home networks and small businesses. We’re seeing many people upgrade their internet service and Firewalla Gold Plus can meet those speeds, future-proof their network architecture, and is compatible with WiFi 6E routers.” 

For the vast majority of households, the Purple and possibly the Blue Plus would be more than adequate. A 2.5-gigabit firewall and router, says the Firewalla team, may end up becoming a smart investment once household internet speeds surpass 1 gigabit per second. The Purple also includes parental controls to prevent access to adult content, for example, or to turn off the Xbox after a set period of time, in addition to monitoring and managing your internet consumption. Preorders for the brand-new Firewalla Gold Plus are currently being accepted and the devices will begin shipping in January 2023.