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)

Introduction to pfSense

his book aims to provide you with in-depth knowledge of a very widely used technology, pfSense. This will provide you with some real-world scenarios and use cases, which you will be able to leverage immediately in your own projects. The introductory modules will help you to understand what pfSense is, its features, the key services it provides, and how you can install it. After the introductory modules, we will deep dive into each of its exciting features. You'll learn about the installation, configuration, and use of pfSense. This education will enable you to do everything from setting up firewalls, load balancing, and failover settings, to integrating with other software such as OpenVPN and Squid proxy server.

In this book, we will give you the information you need in order to work with this amazing piece of software.

In this chapter, you will be introduced to pfSense. You will gain an understanding of what pfSense is, its key features, and its advantages. You will also view demonstrations on the installation of pfSense on a virtual platform on VMware, as well as some other configurations. Let's get started.