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)

Creating firewall rules

Creating a firewall rule in pfSense is easy, even if getting it to do exactly what you want isn't. To begin, navigate to Firewall | Rules. The Rules page has several tabs:

  • Each subnet gets its own tab. Thus, every non-VLAN interface gets a separate tab, and every VLAN gets a separate tab.
  • The leftmost tab is Floating, which is devoted to floating rules–rules that can apply to more than one interface and that can apply to traffic in both directions.
  • If you have configured VPNs, each different VPN protocol gets its own tab (for example, IPsec and OpenVPN):

Creating a rule involves the following steps:

  1. Once you have navigated to Firewall | Rules, click on the tab for the subnet for which you want to create the rule.
  2. Click on one of the Add buttons to add a new rule. One button has an up arrow and the other has a down arrow. The Add button with...