The goal of this chapter was to provide a brief overview of how to get pfSense up and running. Completion of this chapter should give you an idea of where to deploy pfSense on your network, as well as what hardware to utilize. You should also know how to troubleshoot common installation problems and how to do basic system configuration in the most common deployment scenarios.
We have barely scratched the surface here, however, and in the next chapter we will cover some of the more advanced configuration options. We will cover DHCP and DHCPv6, DNS and Dynamic DNS, as well as other capabilities you are likely to consider utilizing, such as captive portal, the Network Time Protocol (NTP), and the Simple Network Management Protocol.
The learning curve becomes somewhat steeper after this chapter, but fear not: if you have a solid understanding of computer networks and how they work, mastering pfSense can be both educational and fun.