We are happy to announce that the first version of Firewall Builder v5 is now ready for beta testing. Overall the theme of v5 is to help make it easier to organize and manage large numbers of objects as well as adding support for new features like attached networks and PF configuration imports.

Here's a quick overview of some of the new features that are included in the initial beta version of v5:

• User defined system folders. Add your own sub-folders to existing folders like Firewalls, Networks, etc.
• Object Keywords. Assign keywords to objects and filter the object tree using those keywords.
• Dynamic Groups. Create Dynamic Group objects using the keywords and object type as filters.
• Multiple operations per rule. Specify multiple operations, like tag and classify, in a single rule.
• Attached Networks. Use new Attached Network object to refer to the networks directly attached to interface.
• Improved GUI behavior. Multiple enhancements to make the GUI easier to use.
• PF Import. Import pf.conf configuration files into Firewall Builder.

Over the coming days and weeks I'll be posting more information about each of these features as well as announcing as new Firewall Builder v5 features are added and ready for testing.

This guide includes more information about these new features, including links to updated Users Guide documentation where available.

Download the latest Firewall Builder v5 package