Are the ports open by default?

[Rob76]

Hi there.
I have no much knowledge about pfsense I have just started with it.
I am using surfshark in combination with pfsense.i read that hackers can use the open ports to make a backdoor and get access to the device.how can I avoid that? Are the ports closed by default when you install pfsense in a device? If they are open by default can someone tell me where I can get information or a tutorial to close them,and which ones I should keep open ?
Regards

[viragomann]

@rob76
By default nothing is open on WAN, i.e. no incoming access from WAN is permitted.

To allow incoming traffic, you have to add firewall rules to the WAN interface, where you are able to state the protocol,source IP and ports as well as destination IP and port. So you can allow incoming access very granular.

From LAN side any outgoing traffic is allowed by default.

To get information for setting up go to the Help menu and download the pfSense book: