How to handle P2P traffic?

Recently we are getting a few support cases where the Firewalla Red and more rarely the Blue is rebooting itself.   Most of these are caused by P2P traffic on the network.   And the reboot is a way for Firewalla to self protect. 

Why is P2P Traffic causing the issue?

P2P software usually generates a very very  large number of connections with a small amount of data transferred per connection. In any IPS system, including Firewalla, every connection needs to be processed, CPU and memory usage will be increased significantly, which may overload the system.

We have made many performance improvements,  the problem is a lot less frequent than about a year ago.   And we are working on a few more mechanisms to smooth or warn the presence of P2P (or like) services.

How to avoid this?

Try the following methods to optimize:

• Reduce the number of concurrent connections in the p2p software. Most of the p2p software provides that functionality.
• Turn monitoring off on the device which is running p2p. (Device detail -> scroll to the bottom -> switch off monitoring button)
• If you are using Firewalla Red, you might consider getting a Firewalla Blue for better performance.

Lastly, you can always send email to help@firewalla.com if you need any help.