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

    How I Killed Off Cisco And Saved Money And Confusion Along The Way

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    17 Posts 7 Posters 1.3k 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.
    • S
      Soyokaze
      last edited by

      @Schnyde:

      perfect sense

      That's definitely makes a perfect sense to use it as pfsense slogan and/or motto.

      Need full pfSense in a cloud? PM for details!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        mkaishar
        last edited by

        @Schnyde:

        I can use licensed Cisco features for free (like BGP, which the ASA can't even do), create more advanced networks (using VLANs and trunking, which again, the ASA does not do), better reliability

        I am looking at BGP, which package did you use and is it stable?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          Schnyde
          last edited by

          OpenBGPD off of the package manager, although my BGP needs have diminished recently, I did find it to be stable.  I was not doing anything fancy, just pushing routes to my provider.

          As the Docs say, conflicts with the OSPF package, so probably best not to run those together.

          Cheers!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • JKnottJ
            JKnott
            last edited by

            As the Docs say, conflicts with the OSPF package, so probably best not to run those together.

            ????

            You'd use BGP to connect autonomous systems but still need something for your own network.  If not OSPF, what???  RIP???

            PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
            i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
            UniFi AC-Lite access point

            I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DerelictD
              Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
              last edited by

              Check out the FRR package in 2.3.4_1, 2.4. Please, if you can, switch a real workload to it and give feedback.

              Glad to have you in the pfSense camp but since when do ASAs not tag/trunk dot1q VLANs?

              Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
              A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
              DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
              Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                Schnyde
                last edited by

                I was surprised to find that out also, almost the hard way.  There are no options in ASDM or the CLI to even make vlans, let alone trunk them, I guess Cisco wants you to buy their routers to do that…  I had mostly 5525Xs and 5512Xs.

                Cheers!

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

                  @Schnyde:

                  I was surprised to find that out also, almost the hard way.  There are no options in ASDM or the CLI to even make vlans, let alone trunk them, I guess Cisco wants you to buy their routers to do that…  I had mostly 5525Xs and 5512Xs.

                  Cheers!

                  Ahemm .. Cough..Cough  ;)
                  https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa95/configuration/general/asa-95-general-config/interface-vlan.pdf
                  Or
                  https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa92/configuration/general/asa-general-cli/interface-basic.html

                  Even my old 5505 can do vlan , but fancy stuff might require a PLUS licence

                  /Bingo

                  If you find my answer useful - Please give the post a 👍 - "thumbs up"

                  pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)

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

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    Schnyde
                    last edited by

                    As usual, the Internet is always right!  Good find, not a fan of sub-interfacing though…

                    Cheers!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • JKnottJ
                      JKnott
                      last edited by

                      @Schnyde:

                      As usual, the Internet is always right!  Good find, not a fan of sub-interfacing though…

                      Cheers!

                      Why's that?  It's nice to be able to keep different services separate, so that you can apply CoS etc, without worrying about where something is plugged in.

                      PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                      i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                      UniFi AC-Lite access point

                      I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • DerelictD
                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                        last edited by

                        pfSense generally does the same thing under the hood:

                        igb0
                        igb0_vlan100
                        igp0_vlan200
                        etc.

                        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                        Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • S
                          Schnyde
                          last edited by

                          Just not a big fan, albiet, I understand that this is how non-switches do it.  No technical reasons, just seems to add complexity to Cisco config.

                          The one thing that Cisco does that pfSense does not is NATing, or more specifically, outbound NATing to a network without an upstream gateway.  We use that feature often at a few locations, and until pfSense (or BSD even) can do this, we cannot use it to replace the Cisco ASAs at these sites.  This is very unfortunate, and leaves me stuck with Cisco until this is sorted out.

                          Cheers!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • JKnottJ
                            JKnott
                            last edited by

                            @Schnyde:

                            Just not a big fan, albiet, I understand that this is how non-switches do it.  No technical reasons, just seems to add complexity to Cisco config.

                            Actually, there are a few technical reasons, such as fewer devices in a broadcast domain, isolation of traffic for increased security and CoS can be applied to some traffic.  A few years ago, I set up a network in a seniors residence.  There was the office traffic on the native LAN and VLANs for VoIP, the residents Internet access and one for network management.  The WiFi access points also used VLANs and multiple SSIDs for staff & resident access.

                            PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                            i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                            UniFi AC-Lite access point

                            I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • P
                              PiBa
                              last edited by

                              @Schnyde:

                              that pfSense does not is NATing, or more specifically, outbound NATing to a network without an upstream gateway.

                              I use outbound-nat on my management network to reach a few devices that dont have pfSense set as their gateway themselves. In pfSense there is no gateway configured on this management interface and outbound-nat works fine.. Am i missing something in where your configuration.?.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DerelictD
                                Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                last edited by

                                Just not a big fan, albiet, I understand that this is how non-switches do it.  No technical reasons, just seems to add complexity to Cisco config.

                                A more complicated network often adds complexity to a firewall/router configuration.

                                Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  Schnyde
                                  last edited by

                                  Awesome, maybe you can help, although I posted this issue in the NAT section:

                                  https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=136579.0

                                  Labeled solved as the pfSense documentation states that any interface without an upstream gateway will not be considered for NAT.  Opened a ticket with pfSense support, and they stated that they could not find a solution.

                                  Basically, set an outbound NAT on the WAN interface to translate to a DMZ address that has no upstream gateway.  Reason being is that I have an IPSEC customer that requires that the network be a DMZ address, as it is currently on the LAN.  I was hoping that I could NAT it out, tried a bunch of different configs, even tried using the FW itself as the defined upstream gateway.  No matter what I did, the traceroutes from the host to that IPSEC client would go out the WAN and not translate to a DMZ address, then out the tunnel.

                                  Cheers!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • P
                                    PiBa
                                    last edited by

                                    Posted a reaction about natting on ipsec in that other thread.. Its not the same as for regular interfaces.

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