Book Image

Learn pfSense 2.4

By : David Zientara
Book Image

Learn pfSense 2.4

By: David Zientara

Overview of this book

As computer networks become ubiquitous, it has become increasingly important to both secure and optimize our networks. pfSense, an open-source router/firewall, provides an easy, cost-effective way of achieving this – and this book explains how to install and configure pfSense in such a way that even a networking beginner can successfully deploy and use pfSense. This book begins by covering networking fundamentals, deployment scenarios, and hardware sizing guidelines, as well as how to install pfSense. The book then covers configuration of basic services such as DHCP, DNS, and captive portal and VLAN configuration. Careful consideration is given to the core firewall functionality of pfSense, and how to set up firewall rules and traffic shaping. Finally, the book covers the basics of VPNs, multi-WAN setups, routing and bridging, and how to perform diagnostics and troubleshooting on a network.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Troubleshooting fundamentals

At times, troubleshooting can be a simple process. At some point, perhaps even when working through the examples in this book, you made a change to pfSense’s configuration (or perhaps somewhere else on your network), and your network was no longer functioning normally. In such cases, resolving the problem can be as simple as remembering what change you made that caused the malfunction and undoing that change. A good proportion of network problems can be solved in this way.

However, in other cases, troubleshooting is not that easy. The cause may be something outside our control, or even if the cause was something we did, we may not be able to isolate it down to a single cause. The network on which the problem has manifested itself might be a critical resource for a company, and we cannot just troubleshoot it at any time—we might have to...