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    Watchguard Firebox M400/M500

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    • J Offline
      jriofrio
      last edited by

      Well, I thank you for your time.....

      Does anyone in this chat have information about the pins connection of the VGA 15 pin to the 12 pin VGA header on the M400 motherboard?
      If a diagram can be provided will be best.
      Also does anyone knows if the USB ports of the M400 box can be used for keyboard and mouse input?..... If not, is there a header in the motherboard that can be used for keyboard and mouse input.
      Appreciate any info anyone could provide.
      My thanks to all... Good day

      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M Offline
        Mookatroid @jriofrio
        last edited by

        @jriofrio
        Directions are rather generic as there will be variances when it comes to the colour coding for each wire in a VGA DB15 connector.

        In short ......

        ab102ecf-d613-4530-b695-a0b905cfeba2-1581859391918-vga.jpg

        .... VGA header pins, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 on the M400 PCB ..... need to be connected to ......... Red, Green, Blue, Hsync, Vsync and Ground, on the DB15 VGA connector.

        I had to use my meter to determine which VGA wires were the required wires before I could connect it all.

        J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • J Offline
          jriofrio @Mookatroid
          last edited by jriofrio

          @Mookatroid ... Hello and thank you for replying to my question.
          I took your picture and put some info in it in order to explain myself but I don't find the way in how to upload it the way you put the pic with your comment. Could you share in how I could insert a picture with my comment please.
          Anyway, what I am trying to get is like:
          12 pin header. ------------------------- 15 pin VGA
          Pin 1 _-------------------------------------------- pin 1
          Pin 2 ----------------------------------------------- pin 3

          And so on.... Cause my lack of knowledge in this kind of connections makes difficult to me to know which pin header connects to db15 pins. Using the pins numbers will make less probable to screw things up. I know the position and order number of the DB15 pins.
          Thank you for your help on this matter.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S Online
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            There should be a button to upload an image:

            Screenshot from 2025-11-12 01-37-35.png

            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • J Offline
              jriofrio @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10 Polish_20251111_022443356.jpg

              Well I hope this works....
              Thank you for your advice

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S Online
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                See the pinout below that picture here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector

                You only need actually need 6 connections like:
                Screenshot from 2025-11-12 04-27-56.png

                J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • J Offline
                  jriofrio @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 ...... Beautiful :) thank you. How they said, a picture is worth a thousand words.
                  A last inquiry if I may.... How you manage the keyboard/mouse input?
                  I'm very appreciative for your help.
                  Best regards.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S Online
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Use a USB keyboard. But you still shouldn't need to use it at all. The serial console is sufficient.

                    G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • G Offline
                      gilphilbert @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      As @stephenw10 said, there's no need for the VGA cable. You can watch the BIOS POST, update the BIOS and boot an OS all with the serial cable!

                      J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • J Offline
                        jriofrio @gilphilbert
                        last edited by

                        @gilphilbert:
                        Hello gentlemen.... I have an inquiry that for sure you know the answer.
                        I have been running pfsense in a PC, I installed an IBM card with 4 Ethernet ports, plus one that the PC already had. Pfsense treats the PC port as the WAN interface and the others 4 as LAN interface, each LAN port is an independent LAN. The IBM card works as a 4 port router.
                        Now, my question: the WatchGuard M400 has a WAN interface and LAN ports too. In pfsense Do these LAN ports are treated independently or as one switch group that will share and IP.
                        Let me know please...
                        Thank you for your time and support.
                        Good day

                        K chpalmerC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • K Offline
                          korenchkin @jriofrio
                          last edited by

                          @jriofrio they are separate networks,if you want them 'switched',use bridge,but it uses cpu cycles...so if you have powerful cpu,go ahead,but i suggest cheap switch for this (unles you have for example something like cheap home router or some mikrotik,where they use cpu---switchchip---severalethernets - then your packets can go either over switchchip,or pass through to cpu and back)

                          J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • chpalmerC Offline
                            chpalmer @jriofrio
                            last edited by

                            @jriofrio said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                            @gilphilbert:

                            Now, my question: the WatchGuard M400 has a WAN interface and LAN ports too.

                            pfSense treats them as they are designed.

                            They are actually 9 separate interfaces that can be used for any network task you assign them to..

                            I have 3 WANs set up and 4 different LANs running on a box that was a "display" unit at a Watchguard "dealer".. been going for over 5 years strong at this point.

                            Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

                            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • J Offline
                              jriofrio @chpalmer
                              last edited by

                              @chpalmer .... Great to hear it. I see by your post you have done some improvement to the box.
                              Did you update the BIOS? How it went!
                              I mean did you encounter any difficulties updating the BIOS..... Do you have any advice for the process!
                              Thank you for your comment....

                              chpalmerC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • J Offline
                                jriofrio @korenchkin
                                last edited by

                                @korenchkin ... Thank you for your clarification, is good to know. I didn't know all the Ethernet ports were independent.... Yeah, I do have a few wireless home router s that I can use.
                                Hasta la vista :)... Good day

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • chpalmerC Offline
                                  chpalmer @jriofrio
                                  last edited by

                                  @jriofrio said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                                  @chpalmer ....
                                  Did you update the BIOS? How it went!
                                  I mean did you encounter any difficulties updating the BIOS..... Do you have any advice for the process!
                                  Thank you for your comment....

                                  No worries! ;) I did update the BIOS but it has been years. I did it with a package on pfsense itself if I remember correctly.. I have never had any kind of VGA connector on any of these (except the one box with a VGA connector) just use the serial port.

                                  Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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