Firewall Rule Required for OPT1 OPT2 Bridge?

[htc4668]

I was successful in creating a LAN bridge with OPT1, OPT2, OPT3, and OPT4 on my unit, receive DHCP requests from all ports, but am locked out of the Web Configurator. Is the anti-lock firewall rule necessary to prevent me from being locked out or is there perhaps another reason I can no longer access 192.168.1.1 after setting up my bridge? I recall some folks saying that changing those two system tune flags should be sufficient while others created an interface group + firewall rule. However, when I do it, I seem to be locked out of the webGUI as soon as I unplug the Ethernet cable and test another port.

Also, while working on my router, I'm often plugging in and out of interfaces between two separate networks so windows is going a little nuts showing me Network 1, 2, 3 … 17. Is there a best practice to flush these from Windows or from my browser so when I try to access 192.168.1.1 that the browser doesn't just timeout due to something being cached?

[moikerz]

Why are you bridging the LAN interfaces? pfSense is a router, not a switch.. you shouldn't be overloading your router with switching necessities. You need a switch; bridging is not recommended.

At the very least, make 4 different LAN segments and let pfSense route between them.