would it be possible to run it through virtualbox ?

What you need
Intel compatible computer with dual network interfaces. (Any previous OS or files on the computer will be overwritten when installing the XG Firewall Home Edition)Home Edition is limited to 4 cores and 6 GB of RAM. The computer can have more than this, but XG Firewall Home Edition will not be able to utilize it.

Thanks a lot for your very helpful reply and other useful safety tips ;). I am still a bit confused how you can make all other devices connect only via the firewall if it's a normal star home topology, i.e. internet/WAN - router - LAN devices including the firewall, pcs, mobiles etc? One topology which can make it work is internet/WAN - router - the firewall - switch - other LAN devices including pcs, mobiles etc, but it is certainly not a typical topology for a normal home and also you need at least two Ethernet cards for your firewall PC. Have I missed anything?

Many Thanks, I have taken your advice and downloaded the UTM version.
I will run it in a VM to see how it performs.

Very good question :smile:
You do not need a special network topology but will need to, at a minimum, set all devices to connect to the Internet via the firewall.
For full protection I would disable access to the router from any other address other than the firewall and 1 specified 'Clean' PC that you can use to access the router in an emergency.
All devices that connect to your network should connect via the firewall and the router should ignore/drop all attempted connections that do not come from the firewall. (Except for the 'Clean' PC which you must ensure is protected from infection etc.)
You can avoid the need for the 'Clean' PC if you are able to quickly/easily reconfigure a PC to have the same IP address as the Firewall in an emergency (i.e. the Firewall crashes etc). The choice is yours depending on your Tech skills.
You will also need to have a router that is configurable and NOT locked down as ISP's tend to do.

Personally, I run my own 'Filtering' DNS Server and Firewall which between them filter out Ads and 'Bad' Addresses.
I block any attempts to access the router directly and any attempts to access DNS other than my own Server.
(Lots of software tries to access its own DNS Servers, ignoring my own setup. Which I find a little bit annoying as it is a potential source of unknown/unfiltered access to my PC's and/or network.)

As you can tell , I am not very trusting of 'Magic' software that just does its own thing. !!! :smile:

​Yes works well but depends on hardware spec you host it on.

Do you need special network topology to use it? For normal home network topology, all devices directly connect to a router in parallel, how can it, installed only on one device, protect other devices? Thanks in advance.

That's interesting, does that method work any good then?, or .....

Reminds me a wee bit of how Smooth wall Firewall runs ...

Heat, thanks for sharing OP!

After a catastrophic hardware failure I retired my hardware firewall - it's too loud to bother repairing and overkill for me now (Juniper SRX1400). I gave up caring and just rely on Windows 10 & Virgin Media, under 8 minutes completely re-installs my machines with all their apps anyway, I have only had 1 infection so far..

I believe this Antivirus is Which magazine recommended.

I agree, I use Sophos UTM for 3 years now and i have tried XG Home as well, I do prefer much more the UTM version.
Link here: sophos.com/en/…spx
I run it in a Vmware ESXi.

please elaborate (with links)

I personally feel the utm 9 is still better for home if you can handle only 50 ips protected by the gw. virtualized is a reasonable way to go if you can leave it on 247, or like me, find an supported embedded board running very low wattage and leave it powered 247 as a perm fw I will change to xg some point in the future once its feature set catches up with the utm.

Alternatively do what I do and install on a hypervisor such as Hyper-V or VMWare

Anyone attempting to install this needs to read this first:

NOTE: The Sophos XG Free Home Use firewall contains its own operating system and will overwrite all data on the computer during the installation process. Therefore, a separate, dedicated computer is needed, which will change into a fully functional security appliance. Just right for the spare PC you have sitting in the corner!

If that's what you want, then it's all good.

Made my old Dell laptop run like treacle. Dumped it within weeks, but it must work ok for some, so fair do's.