pfSense vs scanlogd

pfSense is a free, open-source firewall and router distribution based on FreeBSD, managed through a web interface. Its firewall uses stateful packet inspection and can block traffic based on policy matches. Routing features include policy-based routing, static routes, and concurrent IPv4 and IPv6 support. Security options include IDS/IPS, Snort packet analysis, Suricata rules, IP block lists, and application detection. It supports IPsec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard for site-to-site and remote-access VPNs. The software can run on selected hardware, virtual machines, and cloud instances, and is available in the Azure and AWS Marketplaces, including their US GovCloud regions. The Community Edition is free and open source. pfSense Plus on third-party hardware starts at $129 a year; on Netgate appliances it starts at $189, paid once, with the software included at no charge with an appliance. The USB installer overwrites the entire hard drive and does not support dual booting.

scanlogd is a free TCP port scan detection tool for Linux and self-hosted deployments. It captures packets through Linux raw sockets, libnids, or libpcap. The project advises against using libpcap alone when fragmented IP packets matter, recommending libnids for non-Linux systems or monitoring an entire network. The official download page lists release 2.2.8, release files and signatures, an Openwall archive, and source browsing through GitHub. scanlogd is listed in Owl, Debian GNU/Linux, Gentoo Linux, ALT Linux, and OpenWrt, with ports in OpenBSD and FreeBSD collections. A contributed precompiled Win32 build is also linked. The project describes scanlogd as designed to be totally safe to use and points readers to its manual page and a Phrack article. Openwall offers commercial configuration, compilation, and installation support at US $250/hour with a six-hour minimum or US $9,000/week; fixed-price quotes are available for sufficiently specific projects.