Book Image

Network Security with pfSense

By : Manuj Aggarwal
Book Image

Network Security with pfSense

By: Manuj Aggarwal

Overview of this book

While connected to the internet, you’re a potential target for an array of cyber threats, such as hackers, keyloggers, and Trojans that attack through unpatched security holes. A firewall works as a barrier (or ‘shield’) between your computer and cyberspace. pfSense is highly versatile firewall software. With thousands of enterprises using pfSense, it is fast becoming the world's most trusted open source network security solution. Network Security with pfSense begins with an introduction to pfSense, where you will gain an understanding of what pfSense is, its key features, and advantages. Next, you will learn how to configure pfSense as a firewall and create and manage firewall rules. As you make your way through the chapters, you will test pfSense for failover and load balancing across multiple wide area network (WAN) connections. You will then configure pfSense with OpenVPN for secure remote connectivity and implement IPsec VPN tunnels with pfSense. In the concluding chapters, you’ll understand how to configure and integrate pfSense as a Squid proxy server. By the end of this book, you will be able to leverage the power of pfSense to build a secure network.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

What is IPsec?

IPsec, also known as Internet Protocol Security, is a protocol suite that encrypts IP traffic before the packets are transferred from the source node to the destination. So, naturally, a question arises: what are packets? Well, let's see.

Packets are the basic unit of information in a network transmission. Networks that use TCP as their network protocol transfer data in IP packets. These IP packets have the source and destination address along with the data to be transferred. IPsec is a set of protocols that enable machines to establish mutual authentication between agents at the start of the IPsec session. They also help in the negotiation of cryptographic keys to use during the secure session. IPsec is a versatile suite of protocols and it supports multiple scenarios. IPsec can protect data flows between a pair of hosts (host-to-host), a pair of security...