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)

Summary

We began this chapter by discussing some of the advantages and disadvantages of captive portals. There are some obvious and not-so-obvious security issues related to captive portals, but by following best practices, such as putting captive portal traffic onto a separate interface and auditing captive portal activity, we can minimize the downside of captive portals. We then covered the many options for captive portal configuration in pfSense–namely, the different authentication options. We then discussed examples using these different forms of authentication, and showed that the most difficult of all of these methods—authentication through a RADIUS server—is not all that difficult.

In the next chapter, we will consider other services that you may want to implement on your pfSense system, such as DNS, DDNS, NTP, and SNMP.

...