Security Issue? Open CIFS ports on router?

[Z300M]

It's the best solution for remote access. A good way of doing it is setting up an old computer with a couple of good nics as a pfsense firewall.

What's the advantage of configuring a PC as a pfsense firewall compared to using an off-the-shelf router that has Gigabit ports and configurable firewall features?

 

[anodos]

What's the advantage of configuring a PC as a pfsense firewall compared to using an off-the-shelf router that has Gigabit ports and configurable firewall features?

1) Ability to be customized
2) Guaranteed to receive security updates
3) Portability across hardware
4) Performance

 

[Robert Smith]

You could also run something an off-the-shelf router would not be powerful enough to run. Such as Snort or Squid cache.