FortiGate-30G Firewall for Small Offices with 4 Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 Ports (FG-30G)

The FortiGate-30G is one of those compact firewalls that quietly overdelivers, especially in home offices and small remote sites where compliance is a real concern—not just a buzzword. Its size suggests “basic router,” but its feature set says “please hand the auditor a coffee and watch them nod approvingly.” Sitting inline, it segments traffic cleanly, enforces policy with real granularity, and supports proper logging, VPN, and access control frameworks that map directly to PCI, CMMC, HIPAA-lite, and other alphabet-soup requirements. It’s the rare small-box firewall that makes a home office feel like a legitimate corporate extension without turning the operator into a full-time network admin. Day-to-day, the 30G behaves like a responsible, grown-up piece of security gear. Routing is clean, the VPN stack is robust enough for secure split or full-tunnel deployments, and the device doesn’t mysteriously reboot or get temperamental under load. Even with only four Gigabit ports, it lends itself naturally to segmentation—work network here, personal network there, IoT corralled off where it can’t hurt anything. For remote employees who need to pass compliance audits or maintain strict separation between home and work resources, it’s an incredibly easy drop-in solution. And unlike consumer routers wearing “business” costumes, this one actually enforces the policies it claims to. That said, the 30G is still a small-office firewall at heart. Push it into heavy UTM, full SSL inspection, or multi-site routing gymnastics, and you’ll hit its ceiling sooner than a larger FortiGate. But for the overwhelming majority of home offices, teleworkers, and small professional spaces, the performance is more than enough. The stability is excellent, it runs cool and quiet, and it delivers features normally locked behind pricier hardware—central management, robust logging, identity policies, real firewall rules, and the kind of segmentation auditors love to see. As long as your bandwidth and user count are modest, the 30G slots in perfectly: easy to deploy, easy to secure, and easy to explain during compliance checks. It’s the “not messing around” security appliance for environments that want enterprise hygiene without enterprise size or cost. In the world of remote work where compliance matters more each year, this little box earns its place. Pros • Excellent for compliance-focused home offices (PCI, CMMC, HIPAA-lite, etc.) • Clean segmentation and policy control in a compact chassis • Quiet, cool, and stable—ideal for work-from-home setups • Strong VPN and access-control features for secure remote workflows • FortiOS consistency without needing a bigger device Cons • Not designed for heavy UTM or gigabit deep inspection • Limited port count for more complex local networks • Subscription needed to unlock full security stack • Can hit performance ceilings with multiple tunnels or advanced filtering

Great firewall, buy the UTM license for full functionality.