Managed Firewall Service — what's included, in plain English
No small print tricks — this page defines exactly what each plan covers, how fast we respond, and how billing and cancellation work. It forms part of our Terms & Conditions.
1. The service and who provides it
The Managed Firewall Service is provided by iTVerse Technology Services Ltd, trading as Firewall Buddy (company no. 14848571, VAT GB 445392481). It covers the ongoing management of one Netgate firewall appliance per subscription (Business and Professional are priced per site) running a supported version of pfSense Plus. These service terms apply together with our main Terms & Conditions; if they conflict, this page wins for the managed service.
2. What each plan includes — defined
| Firmware & software updates | We review Netgate's stable pfSense Plus releases and apply applicable updates to your firewall — monthly on Essential, and as released on Business/Professional. Updates are applied remotely, outside your core hours where practical, with a tested rollback point taken first. Major version upgrades that require re-engineering are scoped separately. |
| 24/7 uptime monitoring | Automated monitoring checks your firewall around the clock and alerts our team when it goes down or misbehaves. Human response to alerts happens within support hours (below) at your plan's response target. On Business and Professional we act on alerts proactively — we don't wait for you to report the problem. |
| Support & response times | Support hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00–17:30 UK time, excluding English bank holidays. "Response" means a qualified engineer picks up your ticket and starts work — Essential: by the next working day (email); Business: within 4 support hours (phone & email); Professional: within 2 support hours. Response targets are commitments we take seriously, not guarantees of resolution time — some faults (hardware failure, ISP outages) take longer to fix than to pick up. |
| Configuration backups | Encrypted copies of your firewall configuration taken annually (Essential), monthly (Business) or weekly (Professional), stored securely in the UK/EEA, retained for the life of your subscription plus 90 days. |
| Security reviews & reports | A structured review of your firewall rules, updates, VPN users and logs — annually (Essential), quarterly (Business), or monthly with a written report (Professional). |
| VPN user management (Business & Professional) | Adding, removing and assisting your named VPN users as your team changes — a reasonable volume of routine changes each month (see fair use). |
| Threat blocking / IDS-IPS (Business / Professional) | We manage pfBlockerNG feeds and policy (Business), and monitor and tune Suricata/Snort IDS-IPS (Professional), balancing protection against false positives. |
| Named engineer (Professional) | A named engineer who knows your network handles your work, with cover arrangements during holiday and absence. |
| Netgate Nexus (Professional) | Your firewall is managed through Netgate Nexus central management for the duration of your subscription. |
3. What's not included
To keep the monthly price honest, the following are outside the plan and quoted separately (fixed price or our standard hourly rate, agreed before work starts):
- Project work — network redesigns, new site-to-site VPNs, VLAN restructures, new integrations, migrations between appliances or major pfSense versions
- On-site visits (remote-first service; visits available and quoted per visit)
- Faults in equipment we don't manage — switches, access points, servers, cabling, ISP circuits and routers (we'll happily help diagnose and point you to the right party)
- Re-baselining after configuration changes made by you or a third party without agreeing them with us first
- Hardware repair or replacement — covered by the Netgate warranty and our returns process, which we handle for you, but replacement hardware is not free under a support plan
- Formal training (ad-hoc "how do I…" questions are fine within fair use)
4. Fair use
Plans include a reasonable volume of support for the managed firewall — as a guide, up to 2 hours of engineer time per month on Essential and Business, and up to 4 hours on Professional, plus all the scheduled work in section 2 which doesn't count towards this. Most customers never get near these numbers. If your usage is persistently and substantially above them, we'll talk to you first — usually the answer is a tier that fits better or a one-off quoted piece of work. We will never bill you for extra time without agreeing it in advance.
5. What we need from you
- A supported Netgate appliance running pfSense Plus with a maintained remote-access path for our engineers
- A current contact for authorising changes, and prompt responses when we need decisions or access
- No conflicting configuration changes without telling us — if the config drifts from our baseline, time to re-baseline may be chargeable (section 3)
- Your ISP, licensing and power arrangements staying in good standing
6. Billing, term and cancellation
- Billed monthly in advance; prices include VAT and a VAT invoice is issued each month
- Rolling monthly term — cancel anytime, effective at the end of the current billing period; no partial-month refunds
- We may change plan pricing with at least 30 days' written notice — you can cancel before a change takes effect
- We may suspend service for non-payment after reasonable notice
- On cancellation we hand over your latest configuration backup and any credentials we hold, and remove our access within 14 days — no exit fees, no hostage-taking
7. Data, security and liability
Configuration backups and monitoring data are stored encrypted in the UK/EEA and handled in line with our Privacy Policy; backups are deleted 90 days after your subscription ends. We treat your network information as confidential. The MSP white-label programme is governed by a separate written agreement.
We provide the service with reasonable skill and care, but no firewall, and no monitoring service, can make a network impenetrable or guarantee uninterrupted operation — and this service is priced on that basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for: loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or anticipated savings; business interruption or any indirect or consequential loss; security incidents, intrusions or malware on your network; losses caused by your internet connection, power, hardware faults, Netgate software defects or any other third party; or losses arising from changes you (or anyone who isn't us) make to the firewall, or from not following our written advice. We back up your firewall configuration only — backing up your own business data remains entirely your responsibility.
Our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with the managed service, however arising, is capped at the fees you actually paid us for the service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of England and Wales.
Version 1.0 — August 2026. If we update these terms we'll give existing customers 30 days' notice of any material change.
Questions about any of this — or need something the plans don't cover? Ask us before you sign up. We'd rather lose a sale than surprise you later.