I love the Firebrick and am hooked long term. Its design seems very logical and it’s powerful although it has some annoying missing features. One is no QoS support. The excuse is that it always prioritises small PDUs.
But it has BGP, and link bonding that works, available on the ‘fully loaded’ software option at extra cost.
One of the most important aspects for me is the use of XML config which is highly readable and well-organised. Annoying bug - if you use XML comments it mis-parses the result, so don’t use them. I ignore this, use XML comments everywhere and pre-strip them before `i upload the config to my FB2900 automatically with an uploader tool I wrote (for the iPad) which uses http, very easy.
Everything is designed for the user with clue. There’s a friendly web UI that you can use, this edits the underlying XML config. I never use it though, preferring to edit the XML with a text editor and as I mentioned my ‘master’ XML is in any case full of comments. I can diff the XML to review what I’ve recently done, and I can search it, both vital features for me.
There is so much I could write about the FB2900, but I am weary.
I have an FB2500 as a backup unit, and used to have an FB2700 which I donated to another Kitizen when I got the FB2900. When the FB2700 got zapped by lightning, I got another from AA free! I thought that was incredible.
The lifetime free support and handholding plus regular solid updates, that is worth a lot to me.
Ask Burakkucat what he thinks about the documentation, and then stand well back.
He is a former Firebrick FB105 owner.
If you want to try one, then you can now rent one to play with.