Mastering pfSense

Key Features

• You can always do more to secure your software – so extend and customize your pfSense firewall
• Build a high availability security system that's fault tolerant – and capable of blocking any threats
• Put the principles of better security into practice – unlock a more stable and reliable firewall

Book Description

pfSense has the same reliability and stability as even the most popular commercial firewall offerings on the market – but, like the very best open-source software, it doesn't limit you. You're in control – you can exploit and customize pfSense around your security needs.

If you're familiar with pfSense you probably knew that already. This book builds on any knowledge you may already have, and provides you with a clear route to expand your skills and pfSense's capabilities. You'll learn how to customize and configure pfSense to construct a firewall that can protect you from any potential security threats. Find out how to set up a VPN, and build a high-availability system that provides redundancy and fault tolerance – essential when security and software performance are so interdependent.

With further guidance on how to use a diverse range of third-party packages – all of which will help you unlock more from pfSense, this book covers everything you need - and more – to get a high-quality, reliable firewall up and running for a fraction of the cost.

What you will learn

• Configure pfSense services such as DHCP, Dynamic DNS, captive portal, DNS, NTP and SNMP
• Set up a managed switch to work with VLANs
• Use pfSense to allow, block and deny traffic
• Make use of the traffic shaper to lower and raise the priority of certain types of traffic
• Set up and connect to a VPN tunnel with pfSense
• Incorporate redundancy and high availability by utilizing load balancing and the Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP)
• Explore diagnostic tools in pfSense to solve network problems

About the Author

David Zientara is a software engineer and IT professional living in northern New Jersey. He has 20 years of experience in IT and has been an enthusiastic supporter of the free and open source software (FOSS) community throughout his career, beginning with his first foray into the open source world with Slackware Linux in 1995.

In the mid-1990s, David became lead software engineer for Oxberry LLC, a digital imaging company headquartered in New Jersey. In this capacity, he played a major role in developing a new software package for the company's film scanners for Windows while also helping maintain Oxberry's legacy software, which had been developed for the SGI IRIX platform. He continued in this role for many years and continues to play a part in software development for Oxberry's corporate successor.

In the mid-2000s, David took an interest in computer networking, an interest that led him to learn about m0n0wall and, eventually, pfSense, a fork of the m0n0wall project. His interest in pfSense prompted him to create a pfSense website, http://pfsensesetup.com/, in June 2013.

Table of Contents

1. pfSense Essentials
2. Advanced pfSense Configuration
3. Working with VLANs
4. pfSense as a Firewall
5. Traffic Shaping
6. Virtual Private Networks
7. Redundancy and High Availability
8. Routing and Bridging
9. Extending pfSense with Packages
10. Troubleshooting pfSense