Firewall vs NAT
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I humbly apologise if my question is too stupid, but having come from only ever using ISP supplied modem/routers (and for a short time MANY years ago, a smoothwall firewall—which was very easy to use), I'm struggling with some aspects of pfSense.
When setting firewall or NAT rules there seems to be a correlating rule in opposing section.
I know I'm missing something, but what appears in the firewall rule seems very similar to the NAT rule.
What's the difference?
edit: If you'd prefer, please refer me to some "simple" documentation on it. I don't mind reading and learning myself. But everything I'm getting just confuses me more
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The NAT rule (a port forward) translates the destination address/port as traffic arrives on the interface.
After that, a firewall rule passing the traffic is necessary or it will be blocked. That rule must pass the translated traffic. For instance, if you translate connections to WAN address port TCP/80 to an inside server 192.168.1.100 TCP/8080, the firewall must pass traffic destined for 192.168.1.100 TCP/8080.
Neither will work without the other in that case.
Hard to give you "simple" documentation on a subject that can get a little complicated. You really have to understand what a port forward is really doing. If you don't have the pfSense book (see sig) then:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/How_can_I_forward_ports_with_pfSense
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Port_Forward_Troubleshooting
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Thanks Derelict, I know other posts have basically said the same thing, but the succinctness of that answer is perfect (and perfectly understood). And I already have those two tabs open elsewhere in other windows. That was probably my biggest error (and I'm guessing traps a few newbies) about the destination IP and Port, and now that I've been using it a few days, it's perfectly understood. Cheers
