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Internet  Step-by-step installation of pfSense 2.6 firewall server

FIREWALL INTERNET PFSENSE SERVERS

Step-by-step installation of pfSense

2.6 firewall server
 Eidy EV  2 Years Ago  0  22 Mins
In this article we will see the process of installing a pfSense firewall
server in version 2.6. If you still don’t know what pfSense is or what
functions or features it has, you can click on the following link
Introduction to pfSense .

Actions and requirements needed before

installing a pfSense
Have a server to install pfSense that has at least 1 64-bit
microprocessor with 1 core or more, at least 512 Megabytes of
RAM and at least 2 network cards or one if using vlans.
Disable C states or power saving states of the processor to
achieve higher performance (for physical computers).
Verify that all processors are active, Hyper Theading enabled if
available (for physical equipment).
Prepare an installation media, which can be of 3 variants

GEEKOM Mini PC Mini IT11, 11ª Intel i7-11390H (hasta 5.00 GHz), 32 GB
DDR4 RAM 2TB M.2 SSD, Windows 11 Pro Mini, compatible con 8K
UHD/USB4.0/WiFi 6/BT5.2, computadora de escritorio pequeña para el
hogar y la oficina

Pf-Sense Mini PC sin ventilador 4 LAN i225 2.5 Gbe NICs, Celeron
J4125, 8 GB DDR4 RAM 128 GB mSATA SSD, HD-MI, VGA, USB, WiFi,
computadora pequeña, soporte WatchDog, AES-NI,
OPNsense/Windows 10, dispositivo Firewall

Variants for preparing an installation media

First variant: download the .ISO file from the following url
https://www.pfsense.org/download/ selecting the architecture and
installer type values ​as shown in the following image
This way will download a file called pfSense-CE-2.6.0-RELEASE-
amd64.iso.gz of type .iso.gz. It is a compacted .iso image which we
must decompress to obtain the .iso file. With this resulting file we can
install on virtual machines, since we would only have to provide the path
to that file.

Second variant: the second variant is recording (Burning) the image

obtained in the previous way (the .iso file) on a DVD-type disc. It must be
taken into account that to install using a DVD disc, the computer where
we are going to install must have a DVD disc reader connected and this
technology is already becoming obsolete and being displaced by USB
memories.

Third variant: Prepare a USB memory from a special image file, which
we will download from the same previous site, but this time selecting the
options as shown in the image below
Once the image file pfSense-CE-memstick-2.6.0-RELEASE-
amd64.img.gz has been downloaded , we decompress it to obtain the
.img file and use the Win32diskImager tool which we will download from
the following URL https://sourceforge. net/projects/win32diskimager/

Now with the .img image and the tool, all that remains is to run it and give
it the path to the .img file and specify the letter of the USB drive and click
on “Write” and wait for the memory to be ready.
Installing pfSense
To begin the installation of pfSense, you must connect the installation
media to the server where it will be installed, turn on and boot (boot)
using the previously selected installation media.

Once the computer starts using the installation media, you should see the
following screen.
At this point all you have to do is wait a few seconds for the installation
to load until the following image is displayed

To continue we press enter. A screen like the image shown below should
appear, in which we will press enter again to continue with the installation

Next, the screen shown below will appear to select the keymap to use,
although we can use the predefined one by pressing the enter key to
continue
Next, the installation program will show us this screen in case we want to
change the way of partitioning the hard drive. If we don’t want to do that,
we can press enter again and the default will be used.

Then we are shown the partition configuration options for the system,
which we can leave as default and press enter again.
The next step is to select the type of virtual storage device that the
system creates to store the information, we can leave everything by
default and press enter to continue

Below we are shown the disks that our computer has connected and we
must select which one the installation will be carried out on, to select it
we must press the space key and an asterisk will appear as an indicator
that it has been selected as shown in the following image.
After selecting, press enter to continue.

The next step is to confirm that the disk where the system will be
installed will be erased. To do this, select the YES option using the arrow
keys and press enter.

Once we reach this screen, we have to wait for the installation to

complete.
As soon as the installation process is complete, a screen like the one
shown in the following image will appear. The image tells us if we want to
make any additional changes manually in the system. If you do not want
to do so, we can press enter to continue.
Upon reaching this screen, the system installation is complete, we only
have to restart and make the initial configurations. To reboot, press enter
and wait for the system to reboot and remove the media we used for the
installation.

When the computer has completely restarted, the newly installed system
will begin loading as shown in the following image and it will ask us for
some basic configuration parameters.
In the previous image it asks us if the VLANs should be configured. In this
step we will say no by typing N and pressing enter. If we were to use
vlans we can do so later from the administration web interface.

The next configuration step is assigning the interfaces to the aliases that
pfsense creates. In this case, the system detected two network interfaces
named vtnet0 and vtnet1. These names may vary depending on the type
of network card our server has. We will identify them because they
appear within the parentheses. The aliases or default interface names are
WAN and LAN, although we can add more optional type interfaces,
which we can rename later. In this step, the configuration wizard asks us
which network card (vtnet0 or vtnet1) we want to assign to the WAN that
will be the interface connected to the external network, that is, to our
internet service provider. To continue, we will write the name of the
network interface that we will use for the WAN and press enter as shown
in the following image.

Then it asks us which network interface will be used for the local network
(LAN). There we will write the name of the second interface, which is the
one that should be inside the parentheses. If there is more than one left,
we will choose the corresponding one, write its name and press enter
Once the assignments are finished, the result should be shown on the
screen and it will ask us if we want to proceed with the assignments. To
continue, press “y” and then enter

Wait a few seconds and the main pfsense screen should appear in
terminal mode showing the assignment information and a menu of
options listed below as shown in the following image.

The next step is to assign the IP addresses to the WAN and LAN
interfaces. For this, option number 2 will be used and we do it by writing
a 2 and pressing enter. Then it lists the interfaces as shown in the
following image and we will select the interface number. In this case we
are going to configure the WAN so we write 1 and press enter. Then it
asks us if we will use the DHCP service to configure the IP to which we
can answer “y” or “n”. In our case we will not use it, so we press “n” and
then enter.

Next, it will ask us to enter the IP address, which in this case we will use
10.0.3.2. Then it asks us for the network mask to use in CIDR format
which is expressed by a number between 1 and 31. In our case we are
using a /24 so we will write the number 24.

The three actions previously carried out are shown in the following image

Subsequently, it asks us for the IP of the gateway that our server will use,
in our example it is IP 10.0.3.1.

Additionally, the server will not ask if we want to use the IPv6
configuration on the WAN interface via DHCP, to which we will respond
no in our example by typing “n” and pressing enter. Finally, it asks us if
we want to revert the administration web interface protocol to HTTP, to
which we will answer no by writing “n” and pressing enter. We only have
to confirm the change for which we will press enter again. The above
three steps are shown in the following image.
At this step we configure the IP of the LAN interface by entering option
number 2. When it lists the interfaces again, we choose 2. After that,
when it asks us if we want to use the DHCP configuration, we say no by
writing the letter “n” and pressing enter. . When requesting the IP address
(Lan IPv4 Address) we put 10.0.0.102. When it asks us for the network
mask in CIDR format (1 – 32), we enter 24, which is the example network
we are using. Then when it asks us for the gateway (upsteam gateway
address) we leave it blank and press enter. Next, when it asks for the
IPv6 address, we leave it blank and press enter again. When asking if we
want to enable the DHCP server on the LAN interface, we say no by
writing “n” and pressing enter again.

Finally, it will ask us if we want to revert to the HTTP protocol and we say
no by typing “n” and pressing enter. To conclude, it will tell us to press
enter to finalize the changes and it should come out just like the image
shown below.

At this step we can access it from a computer that is connected to the

server that we have just installed. This computer must be connected
through the LAN interface.

To access the server we will do it using a web browser by writing in the

address bar the URL shown by the pfsense server console that is inside
the first red box in the previous image, the following image shows what
the URL put in the browser.
In our case we are using the Mozilla Firefox browser, but any can be
used. Once we access the URL, the browser should show us an alert
because the page we are trying to open is over HTTPS and the certificate
it uses is self-signed, so it will show us an alert like the one shown below

To continue, click on advanced and then on Accept the risk and continue.
In other browsers this alert is different, but you still have the options to
continue.

Once we continue, the access page to the administration web interface of

our pfsense server should load as shown in the following image.
To access the first time you open this page we will use the admin user
and the pfsense password and then an initial configuration wizard will
appear as shown in the following images

At this step, the wizard asks us for the name we will give to our server
and the domain it will use. Here we replace the data we want, as well as
the DNS servers, and click the Next button to continue
In this step of the wizard we will specify the time zone that our server will
use. In this case we select Europe/Madrid, but you must select the one
that corresponds to you. Then we click on Next to continue.

This step will display the WAN interface configuration. Note that the
parameters that we had previously specified in the configuration in the
server console are already selected.
On the next page of the wizard we will verify the configuration of the
LAN interface

The next step is to establish the access password that we will use to
access the server administration web interface, here we must use a
secure password and confirm it correctly

To finish we click on the “Reload” button

and then in “Finish”

Once we have reached this screen we have completed the installation of
our pfSense server. Here we are shown legal information about pfSense.
We click on the lower right button “Accept”

and finally on the “Close” button

Congratulations, we should now be able to see the pfsense
administration web interface dashboard as shown in the image below. In
it we highlight in red the options menus at the top and the button with the
plus sign to add more informative widgets to the dashboard or home
page.

Below we show you a dashboard of the pfSense administration interface

with some added widgets and some additional settings, in addition to
using the dark theme.
Feel free to explore and test all the options available in the menus of your
pfSense server management web interface. In subsequent articles we will
continue to address the functionalities and configurations of this excellent
firewall solution.

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