I am using NethServer as the LAN/WAN gateway at one of my company’s centers. This is a complex of offices used by 50-150 clients who connect to the LAN via both wired and wireless connections. NethServer manages 4 networks: LAN, DMZ (for video security cameras), Guest and WAN. Other servers on the LAN handle company-wide backups and file sharing.
NethServer provides me with WAN content filtering, firewall security and intrusion protection, and traffic/bandwidth monitoring. My primary gateway is a 4-core Intel-based box with 8Gb RAM and a 1Tb hard drive. Nothing fancy. I also run a hot spare clone NS server on an older Pentium 4 box, which I can swap for the main server in an emergency. We’re a non-profit, so we tend to do things as inexpensively as possible.
At two other similar company locations, IT staff are using PfSense to provide the same kinds of services I use NS for here. I’ve been evaluating PfSense and comparing it to NethServer. Without going into much detail, I’ll say that NS is far easier to set up and get running, far easier to understand, and the NS community is much more helpful to newbies. NS doesn’t offer all the features of PfSense, but it does exactly what I need it to do.