Understanding the interface types
When you open the Network | Interfaces menu, you will see an assortment of physical interfaces.
There are four basic interface types that determine how an interface will behave, which we will discuss in this section:
- Virtual Wire (VWire)
- Layer 3
- Layer 2
- Tap
Let's discuss them in more detail.
VWire
Just as the name suggests, VWire is intended to be a "bump in the wire." VWire always consists of two physical interfaces—no more and no less. There is no low-level interference with VLAN tags and there are no routing options; packets are inspected in flow.
Using a VWire interface can be an easy way to "drop in a firewall" without needing to interfere with an existing routing or switching environment. It easily plugs in in front of an ISP router or can be placed in between a Honeypot and the network to add a layer of detection.
Before you can create a VWire interface, you first need...