Mastering pfSense

Master the art of managing, securing, and monitoring your network using the powerful pfSense 2.3

About This Book

• 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

Who This Book Is For

SysAdmins and security pros – get more from the world’s leading firewall with this book. You can always do more to secure your software, so start here.

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

In Detail

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.

Style and approach

Practical and actionable, tackle some advanced functionalities of pfSense with minimum fuss. We know you don’t just want an instruction manual – you want to put the principles of better security into practice. That’s exactly why we produced this book.

Downloading the example code for this book. You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.PacktPub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.PacktPub.com/support and register to have the code file.