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Mastering pfSense - Second Edition

By : David Zientara

3.3 (4)

Mastering pfSense

3.3 (4)

By: David Zientara

Overview of this book

pfSense has the same reliability and stability as even the most popular commercial firewall offerings on the market – but, like the very best open-source software, it doesn’t limit you. You’re in control – you can exploit and customize pfSense around your security needs. Mastering pfSense - Second Edition, covers features that have long been part of pfSense such as captive portal, VLANs, traffic shaping, VPNs, load balancing, Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP), multi-WAN, and routing. It also covers features that have been added with the release of 2.4, such as support for ZFS partitions and OpenVPN 2.4. This book takes into account the fact that, in order to support increased cryptographic loads, pfSense version 2.5 will require a CPU that supports AES-NI. The second edition of this book places more of an emphasis on the practical side of utilizing pfSense than the previous edition, and, as a result, more examples are provided which show in step-by-step fashion how to implement many features.

Preface

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

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Free Chapter

Revisiting pfSense Basics

Revisiting pfSense Basics

Technical requirements

pfSense project overview

Possible deployment scenarios

Hardware requirements and sizing guidelines

Hardware sizing guidelines

The best practices for installation and configuration

pfSense configuration

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Advanced pfSense Configuration

Advanced pfSense Configuration

Technical requirements

SSH login

DHCP

DNS

DDNS

Captive portal

NTP

SNMP

Summary

Questions

VLANs

VLANs

Technical requirements

Basic VLAN concepts

VLAN configuration at the console

VLAN configuration in the web GUI

Configuration at the switch

Troubleshooting VLANs

Summary

Questions

Using pfSense as a Firewall

Using pfSense as a Firewall

Technical requirements

An example network

Firewall fundamentals

Firewall best practices

Creating and editing firewall rules

Scheduling

Aliases

Virtual IPs

Troubleshooting firewall rules

Summary

Questions

Network Address Translation

Network Address Translation

Technical requirements

NAT essentials

Outbound NAT

1:1 NAT

Port forwarding

Network Prefix Translation

Troubleshooting

Summary

Questions

Traffic Shaping

Traffic Shaping

Technical requirements

Traffic shaping essentials

Configuring traffic shaping in pfSense

Advanced traffic shaping configuration

Traffic shaping examples

Using Snort for traffic shaping

Troubleshooting traffic shaping

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Virtual Private Networks

Virtual Private Networks

Technical requirements

VPN fundamentals

Configuring a VPN tunnel

Troubleshooting

Summary

Questions

Redundancy and High Availability

Redundancy and High Availability

Technical requirements

Basic concepts

Server load balancing

CARP configuration

An example of both load balancing and CARP

Troubleshooting

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Multiple WANs

Multiple WANs

Technical requirements

Basic concepts

Multi-WAN configuration

Example – multi-WAN and CARP

Troubleshooting

Summary

Questions

Routing and Bridging

Routing and Bridging

Technical requirements

Basic concepts

Routing

Bridging

Troubleshooting

Summary

Questions

Extending pfSense with Packages

Extending pfSense with Packages

Technical requirements

Basic considerations

Installing packages

Important packages

Other packages

Summary

Questions

Further reading

Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Technical requirements

Troubleshooting basics

pfSense troubleshooting tools

Troubleshooting scenarios

Summary

Questions

Assessments

Assessments

Chapter 1 – Revisiting pfSense Basics

Chapter 2 – Advanced pfSense Configuration

Chapter 3 – VLANs

Chapter 4 – Using pfSense as a Firewall

Chapter 5 – Network Address Translation

Chapter 6 – Traffic Shaping

Chapter 7 – Virtual Private Networks

Chapter 8 – Redundancy and High Availability

Chapter 9 – Multiple WANs

Chapter 10 – Routing and Bridging

Chapter 11 – Extending pfSense with Packages

Chapter 12 – Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

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Questions

Answer the following questions:

What is the final step in troubleshooting a networking problem?
A site can be reached by pinging the IP address but pinging the hostname fails. What is a likely cause of this?
Name a wireless standard that uses the 2.4 GHz range (there are two).
Which wireless encryption standard sends challenges in the clear and is generally considered insecure now?
Identify a method of determining whether an interface is up or down from within the pfSense web GUI.
What tool can be used to monitor the pfSense state table, and can be used from within the web GUI or the command line?
What tool can be used to ping a site that blocks ICMP traffic but allows TCP traffic?
What are the two main purposes of traceroute?

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