You can have professional level packet filtering by using OpnSense (FOSS) on any not too slow used PC if you are a home or SOHO user, or on new dedicated hardwa

You can have professional level packet filtering by using OpnSense (FOSS) on any not too slow used PC if you are a home or SOHO user, or on new dedicated hardware that costs half of that money or less. If you are ok with consuming more energy by using older hardware, there are many big brand used firewalls converted to OpnSense or PfSense that can be bought almost for peanuts online. Just search for "pfsense" or "opnsense" on Ebay for example. https://opnsense.org/ https://opnsense.org/ https://www.ipu-system.de/ https://www.ipu-system.de/ This is the only European based vendor I'm aware of, aside PCEngines, whose hardware is excellent but not comparable wrt performance for heavy use. I'm sure there are cheaper similar solutions, especially from far east; also some interesting offers from the US and UK although shipping and import fees make them a lot less appealing (for us in the EU).