UK ADSL

Waqar.UK

Hello all, my friend is on UK ADSL, I know how to set up on cable fibre internet (virginmedia) but is it any different during installation of pfsense vs Virgin media fibre?

pwood999

In both cases it should be similar, where most installs use the ISP device as the modem. Depending on the ISP, you have two options:

Configure the ISP Router/Modem in NAT mode with the LAN port using private IP connected to pFsense WAN port.
This means you have double NAT, but generally works for most home systems.
Downside is any Port-Forwarding for gaming or servers needs to be done twice.
Configure the ISP Router/Modem in Modem mode with LAN port using Public IP connected pFsense WAN port.
Advantage is pFsense becomes your primary firewall & router device.
Port Forwarding & FW Rules only done once.

In either case you should also setup separate internal WiFi access points, and disable the ISP WiFi. This has the advantage of also disabling ISP Public Hotspots like BT-Fon, etc. that leverage your paid for broadband.

On ADSL many UK ISP (i.e. BT Home Hub) don't provide Modem Mode, but Virgin Superhub does. Best solution for ADSL is to replace the ISP router with a proper Modem.

Waqar.UK

Cheers.

He would still like to use wireless while using pfsense.
So his wireless / ADSL modem needs to be replaced?
I know when installing pfsense it asks to plug in the wan connection, it recognises it as a wan - repeating this for a lan connection and then saving the settings. That is it for the installation setup, afterwards normally use 192.168.1.1 from a connected browser. Is that it?

pwood999

Do the initial install using DHCP on WAN, so it gets an IP from the ADSL router. If the ADSL uses 192.168.1.0/24 then you need to pick a different subnet for the pfSsense LAN.

Next within the pfSense setup wizard, you can manually assign a static WAN IP outside the ADSL router DHCP range.

If he wants to use the ADSL WiFi, this will be bypassing pfSense, and only local LAN connections will use it.

Waqar.UK

Nice one 8)