I have no recommendations for remote logging. If the logs in ClearOS use rsyslog (anything in messages, system, secure, mail and some others) could possibly leverage rsyslog which can be set up to receive or send logs externally. Snort (IDS) uses rsyslog. I am not so sure about snortsam (IPS).

If you have External and LAN connections defined, Gateway mode,

You are on your own if you are doing this setup as Standalone no firewall. I don't think routing is set up properly. Added to which you are disabling syswatch (from your other thread). All I can suggest is that you try re-enabling syswatch when NGFW goes down. If this does not work then I have little idea.

Gb NIC's are better!. Can you just check if you have the RTL8111/8168/8411 type?If you do, please install the kmod-r8168 and kmod-r8169 drivers with "yum install kmod-r816*" for a better experience. You will then need to reboot.

Is ClearOS in Gateway or Standalone mode? If it is in gateway mode the ideal solution is to put your router into Bridge Mode, if it supports it, or perhaps a DMZ if it does not, otherwise you have to do port forwards from your router to ClearOS for any service you want to expose to the internet. If your external line is xDSL you may also need to switch your WAN interface to PPPoE. If you are behind a NAT router you will want to give ClearOS a Static IP on the router LAN, or fix its IP in the router (in ClearOS it is called a static lease).

Your external DNS is controlled by the IP settings screen, but the settings can point to an internal DNS server like Pi-Hole.

I am not sure how to integrate Wireguard with ClearOS. It may be just by setting the Gateway IP in the ClearOS DHCP server to the Wireguard IP. This would put all DHCP machines on your LAN to use Wireguard. Similarly you can configure the DHCP server to hand out the Pi-Hole IP address as a DNS server.

If you wanted it, ClearOS has a VPN solution in partnership with ibVPN, but it does tie you to them as a supplier.

I believe Pi-Hole can run on ClearOS. Google for instructions for Centos.

You can disable the ClearOS DHCP server if you want and use another one on your LAN with no problem. Just make sure you don't have two DHCP servers enabled at the same time.

While talking about LAN's, if you intend to use OpenVPN then keep clear of the 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24 LAN subnets.

The ClearOS LAN IP should always be static.

Re: Network adapter not working

Your problem is mainly one of drivers. Your NIC appears to need the e100 driver which RedHat have removed from the kernel. Fortunately many of the older drivers which have been removed from the kernel are now available from ElRepo. The one you want is here.

For the pen drive stick with FAT32. You should be able to use the Storage Manager app to mount it. Mount it anywhere such as /mnt/pen. I think the app creates the folder for you. Otherwise do the following:
Insert the pen drive
run lsblk and note the device is. It will probably be sdb or sdb1
Create a folder to mount it into "mkdir /mnt/pen"
Mount it "mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/pen"

You should bow be able to install the driver:
cd /mnt/pen
yum install kmod-e100-*

Unmount the pen drive:
cd ..
umount /mnt/pen (or umount /dev/sdb1, I can never remomber)

Remove the pen drive
Reboot
Your NIC should now be recognised.

USB NIC's have the same issue. We'll need to identify the driver. WiFi is harder.

Centos 7.8 release notes can be found here.

ClearOS 7.8 is now available for Beta testing. Please use that thread to report any issues relating to the Beta.

ClearOS 7.8 is now available for Beta testing. More information in this post.