Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    How to put router before pfsense 22.01 firewall

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    33 Posts 4 Posters 2.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • bingo600B
      bingo600 @Gertjan
      last edited by bingo600

      Removed, as it clutters up the OP's topic

      /Bingo

      If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

      pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

      QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
      CPUĀ  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
      LANĀ  : 4 x Intel 211, DiskĀ  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

      R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @rupocinski
        last edited by

        @rupocinski said in How to put router before pfsense 22.01 firewall:

        I got the openVPN up and running

        So Status > OpenVPN showed the client as UP with traffic passing?

        but the interface would not connect

        What interface? The assigned OpenVPN interface?
        If the OpenVPN tunnel was up that interface would show as connected.

        Steve

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • R
          rupocinski @bingo600
          last edited by

          @bingo600
          Ok so what I want to do is have a vpn for encryption then my firewall then a the dhcp router. I just wanted to use the pfsense as the firewall so that means I would always be connected to VPN. I am worried about security. I know the firewall is good but would feel better with a vpn in place. Not really happy with expressvpn subscriptions up in sept so not renewing it. Would like another alternative to this whole configuration setup. So you use your VPN now and then not all the time. Sounds like a good setup. What advice do you have for me at this point you know what I want to do, firewall the DHCP firewall had issues dropping clients at times so I thought why not use it and put a router behind it to handle the DHCP which are all static routes anyway with MAC. Just want to be secure. I setup the pfsense as it was supposed to be and I did Pfblocker also. Will install Snort also.

          bingo600B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • bingo600B
            bingo600 @rupocinski
            last edited by bingo600

            @rupocinski
            I'm sorry i "Polluted" your thread, shouldn't have done that.

            I think you should continue your debugging with @stephenw10
            And get the OpenVPN working on pfSense.
            That would give you some experience with pfSense configuration, and the basic idea of OpenVPN client setup.

            The setup i have is not an easy setup to make, unless you're quite experienced in Linux , Networking and pfSense.

            One thing though - Re. your issues.
            You are not in a "VPN restricted country" are you ?
            And have you tried without pfBlocker active ??

            /Bingo

            If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

            pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

            QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
            CPUĀ  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
            LANĀ  : 4 x Intel 211, DiskĀ  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

            R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • R
              rupocinski @bingo600
              last edited by

              This post is deleted!
              bingo600B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • bingo600B
                bingo600 @rupocinski
                last edited by

                @rupocinski
                Please answer @stephenw10 's post here
                https://forum.netgate.com/post/1036574

                I'm also wondering which interface that is down ...
                Is it the OpenVPN client interface ?

                I haven't any experience in setting up a pfSense ExpressVPN Client setup, as i have always chosen to do the "VPN Provider VPN-tunneling" elsewhere.

                My OpenVPN experience is in Lan2Lan or "Client Dialin" (RoadWarriors).

                What does your Status --> System Logs --> OpenVPN show on "Client connect ?

                4be0d43a-0bb4-468e-9823-a63d5d6912fe-image.png

                If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

                pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

                QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
                CPUĀ  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
                LANĀ  : 4 x Intel 211, DiskĀ  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

                R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • R
                  rupocinski @bingo600
                  last edited by

                  This post is deleted!
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Go to Status > OpenVPN. Does it show the client as connected with traffic passing?

                    If not go to Status > System Logs > OpenVPN and look for errors.

                    Steve

                    R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • R
                      rupocinski @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      This post is deleted!
                      bingo600B 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        Ok so the OpenVPN looks something like this?

                        Screenshot from 2022-04-06 18-31-03.png

                        What exactly shows as down still on the dashboard?

                        @rupocinski said in How to put router before pfsense 22.01 firewall:

                        I tired my IP and it is my local so it is not connected to the interface

                        So by 'connected' you mean your traffic is still being routed via the WAN and not over the VPN?

                        You have to do this one step at a time. So the first thing to do is make sure the OpenVPN client is actually connected to the server.

                        Then try to ping something over it. So go to Diag > Ping and ping google.com with the source IP set as the VPN like:
                        Screenshot from 2022-04-06 18-36-20.png

                        R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • bingo600B
                          bingo600 @rupocinski
                          last edited by bingo600

                          @rupocinski

                          So it's the "Interface you're talking about is displayed like this on the dashboard

                          0067beea-c65e-4ec1-adcd-ce43424dbf93-image.png

                          But with a "Red Down arrow" ?

                          And your Status --> OpenVPN

                          814a597c-fb1e-465f-b96b-13826694653b-image.png

                          Shows something like this , where Status is "up" ??

                          Do you have any Numbers at "Bytes Sent" & "Received" ?

                          /Bingo

                          If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

                          pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

                          QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
                          CPUĀ  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
                          LANĀ  : 4 x Intel 211, DiskĀ  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Yeah, if you have an assigned OpenVPN interface (which you must to policy route across it) the interface status should reflect the OpenVPN tunnel status.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • bingo600B
                              bingo600 @rupocinski
                              last edited by bingo600

                              @rupocinski

                              Are you using Windows 7/8/10

                              You have a built in "Snipping tool" , where you can "Cut out parts of the screen image"
                              ff850fcb-d506-4dc4-b1ee-708c15396d84-image.png

                              After that you can "Copy" the image in the "snipping tool" , and then "paste it in the pfSense message" (CTRL-V)

                              Some screen images from you , would be super helpful.

                              /Bingo

                              If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a šŸ‘ - "thumbs up"

                              pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

                              QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
                              CPUĀ  : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
                              LANĀ  : 4 x Intel 211, DiskĀ  : 240G SAMSUNG MZ7L3240HCHQ SSD

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • R
                                rupocinski @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                This post is deleted!
                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Ok, please show us exactly what shows as down and how that interface is configured.

                                  Also if we can see the OpenVPN status page we might be able to see an issue.

                                  R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • R
                                    rupocinski @stephenw10
                                    last edited by

                                    This post is deleted!
                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • First post
                                      Last post
                                    Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.