The guide will take you through the setup of the pfSense firewall with one WAN interface, one LAN interface and one Opt1-WiFi Interface.

This guide was written for Linksys, Netgear, and D-link users with no firewall or router experience. No experience is needed with FreeBSD or GNU/Linux to install and run pfSense. When you are finished, management of pfSense will be from a web interface just like any of the SOHO firewall/router appliances.

pfSense is a web-based firewall project that is similar, in terms of functionality, to the software in firewall appliances sold by Linksys, Netgear and D-Link. pfSense covers all the basic requirements offered by those appliances but offers so much more—in fact, it is really in a class by itself since it would be very difficult to find a commercial alternative that would provide what pfSense has to offer (or, anything cheaper than $2,000–$5,000).

As mentioned above, in this article I will explain how to setup the pfSense firewall with one WAN interface, one LAN interface and one Opt1-WiFi Interface. This set-up allows you to offer wireless Internet to the surrounding community. The WiFi subnet will not be able to access the LAN: it will be able to connect to the Internet only. You can choose to eliminate the Opt1-WiFi setup: this will leave you with a firewall more similar to the “conventional” appliances.

One of the very unique uses for your new firewall could be to offer wireless Internet to your neighbors at a reduced cost

One of the very unique uses for your new firewall could be to offer wireless Internet to your neighbors at a reduced cost. This connection can be via an encrypted access point, where the network key is only given to approved users, or an open access point where you control access to the Internet with the captive portal function built in to pfSense. A portal landing page will be presented whenever a user tries to connect to the Internet at the beginning of the session. Each user will need to have their user name and password entered into the firewall in advance of the first connection.

There are many advanced features that pfSense can offer with one-click installation which are listed at the end of this article. See the pfSense’s web site. There is an active user forum and an pfSense Wiki.

Two good reasons to use pfSense

1. pfSense is a very powerful and stable project with advanced features. Users of pfSense have reported that it performs well even with hundreds of computers operating behind the firewall. pfSense has all the features of the SOHO units and much more. You can have multiple network subnets separate from each other using firewall rules. For example, you could have separate subnets for each business function; or separate Accounting, Marketing, Sales, and R&D from each other, while giving each one access to the Internet; or set up a HotSpot for your business, allowing users to access the Internet but not the company LAN (which usually contains a POS (Point Of Sale) system and/or proprietary information and non public computer systems).

2. If you are an experienced FreeBSD, GNU/Linux or Unix user you may wish to add applications from the FreeBSD repository. While running additional applications on a firewall can increase your exposure to potential risk of being hacked, it can still be extremely useful to add a few applications to pfSense. Once you get pfSense installed you can find a list of authorized ports under the System Packages tab. These can be installed with one click. The FreeBSD.org packages are added by the user via the shell the way it has been done for years. These FreeBSD.org packages are not officially supported by pfSense.

Install Guide

Download, ISO preparation, and interface selection.

Here is the link to the pfSense download area This will take you to a mirror near you. This CD we will install from is a Live CD. A Live CD will allow you to test your hardware and pfSense without actually installing onto the hard drive. You will need to change your BIOS to boot from the CD and then boot from the CD image that you create from the ISO image. This CD is also an installer CD—more on this later.

Users of pfSense have reported that it performs well even with hundreds of computers operating behind the firewall