Network WAN switch and pfSense
-
Hi there, I'm new here so please be gentle.
I recently discovered pfSense while searching for load balancing software/hardware for around 8+ internet connections or WANS on the internet and I must say it looks like one of my greatest finds yet.
Now the problem I have is in most cases I see in the documentation they put physical nics on the pfSense box and from there configure the outgoing load balancing for each nic which is connected to an outgoing WAN connection.
Now my question is, is it possible to possibly have one connection with a cat5 cable (with something like 100 mbps connection) to a switch/bridge. Then on the switch you plug in the 8+ WAN connections. This way one would require only one nic that goes to the switch and another that connects to another switch which moves to a proxy/cache server and the rest of the network. I would assume you only need to configure the IP address' of the routers which connects you to the internet for the configuration of the load balancing in pfSense? But most, if not every, example uses physical nics.
If you guys can answer me this I would be very happy indeed as it makes my setup so much easier ;D
Please let me know if you don't understand what I'm asking here. Thanks again :)
Here is a rough sketch:
-
You could have each one of those routers going into a port on the switch that's assigned to a separate VLAN. Then the pfSense link to the switch would carry each of those vlans and vlans are treated the same a separate physical interfaces.
-
Mmmm… that might help... but I'm also curious, does pfSense require a physical interface?
-
As you can see I have that very setup working perfectly http://www.cheesyboofs.co.uk/home.htm <- give it time to load, stick each modem in its own vlan on the switch then add each vlan to pfsense. My firewall only has vlans and you don't need to assign an address to the physical interface.
-
Mmmm… that might help... but I'm also curious, does pfSense require a physical interface?
You only need one physical interface to get it to the switch. The rest can be done with VLANs.
-
You "could" solve that without VLANs. (If you have 2 physical interfaces for WAN(s) and the LAN you're serving)
This thread might interrest you: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,14005.msg74791.html#msg74791
