r/sophos

Sizing a perimeter firewall for a university campus edge and looking for model suggestions before we run a PoC.

Requirements:

• Users: ~3,500–4,000 concurrent
• Total edge/WAN capacity: current pipe scaling up to 10 Gbps (all traffic)
• SSL deep-inspection (decrypt) load: ~2 Gbps baseline today — this is my binding constraint (full IPS/AV/app-control/logging, everything decrypted)
• ~1,200–1,500 managed devices in decrypt scope; ~2,300 BYOD endpoints bypass decryption
• Active-standby HA — each appliance must independently carry the full load
• 7-year horizon, 15% expected / 25% stress growth; 80% utilization as capacity-review trigger

I’m trying to determine whether this is a Sophos WAF config issue or if I’m missing something.
Architecture: client -> Sophos WAF -> Nginx Flask API. Here’s what I’ve observed: the application works perfectly when accessed directly on the internal network, GET and the CORS OPTIONS preflight reach Nginx successfully, but the actual PATCH/Post with formdata request never reaches Nginx (no access log entry). The browser receives a 403 Forbidden with a generic Apache error page, so I suspect the Sophos WAF is rejecting it before forwarding.

Questions: has anyone seen Sophos WAF block PATCH requests by default or via protection policy?
Which logs or settings should I check to identify the exact rule causing the block, and is there a way to temporarily put the WAF policy into monitor only to confirm it’s the WAF rejecting it?

This morning my day started bad, with my whole infrastructure being down. The Sophos XG 125 looked dead. I measured the voltage and got 12V, so I feared the whole machine was bricked, not just the power adapter. Using a all-purpose power adapter however, I found out the device still works, so it seems to be the power adapter that is b0rked nevertheless.

Anyway: I'm on the temporary power adapter now, which is 12V/5A. I don't know how good that is in the long run for the firewall, so I want to buy (two of) the right model. But which one? I find conflicting information about the amps. 3, 3.3 or 3.4. Does anyone know what the device expects? Or does a 3 to 3.4A range (and even 5A) not matter so much?

Hey guys,

i have a XG 115w rev2 and using OPNsense at the moment, but i dont really like that. I would like to install XG Firewall Home Edition on my appliance. Do you the speccs with 2 Cores and 4GB Ram are fine or should i loke for some better hardware?

Hi, I'm finally posting my question on this sub because It's getting so frustrating.
I bought a used Sophos SG115 Rev. 3 and wanted to install Sophos XG Home on it. Got the latest version of the ISO from their website and flashed it onto a usb-drive. Ran into issues and found out that you should format the disk using an ubuntu setup (or whatever OS).

After installing Ubuntu and trying again it finally seemed to install it, but while booting it froze. Another reddit post said that it was because of UEFI. Changed it but now it says that my "linuxbit is missing or corrupted" and I cant install at all. Changed a few settings in BIOS, installed Ubuntu again for formattig but still same issue.

I also tried the hardware version of the ISO but didnt work.

Does anyone have an idea?

Used hardware:

- Sophos SG115 Rev 3
- USB 3.1 32GB flash drive
- USB 2.0 16GB flash drive (as secondary test device)

If I wanted to remove Sophos Firewall Hardware from my network without bringing the system down would the best way to do it be to place a network switch in its place?

An outside company managed the firewall and I don’t have access to the console or have the admin passwords to log in.

The latest release of Sophos Central introduces recurring firmware update schedules for Sophos Firewall.

This gives administrators the ability to keep all firewalls up to date while still maintaining full control over when updates are deployed.

A few important notes about this feature:

• SFOS will only install Maintenance Releases (MRs). Major version upgrades will not be installed automatically until you decide to move to the next major release.
• The feature also includes a staging option, allowing you to select a small group of firewalls to receive and test new firmware before rolling it out to the rest of your fleet.

Keep in mind that SFOS supports automatic firmware rollback in the event of an upgrade failure, including HA deployments. You can also manually downgrade at any time with a single click if an issue is encountered after the upgrade.

Is there a Sophos tool for re-flashing the BIOS? Had a problem with XG330 Rev2 and details now missing re serial number when querying the BIOS etc.