Cloud pfSense Firewall for on the Go

NollipfSense

Has any one use a cloud pfSense Firewall on the go, meaning traveling and using coffee shops, hotel, hostel, hotspot to communicate where the communication traffic goes from a laptop or tablet at those locations through the pfSense firewall and back, such as surfing the web or communication with home, etc?

I imagine logging in from the locations into one's cloud instance, boot up pfSense, since one want to save on cost of running it full time, but stuck on how I then route the traffic between the firewall using someone else network. Would I need a virtual machine instance of pfsense on my laptop? How would it work in the case of a tablet? My device would be either a Macbook Air or an iPad pro...thanks.

NogBadTheBad

@nollipfsense An IPsec / OpenVPN server @ home makes more sense than putting something up in the cloud.

You'd just need the client on the Macbook Air or an iPad Pro, both of these devices support IPsec natively.

Cool_Corona

@nollipfsense Find a 5G router. Connect to it via cable to your laptop. (thunderbolt)

Fire up a VM in VmWare Player and use the now cabled NIC as VM's WAN.

Then use the VM's LAN as your GW and your normal NIC as your LAN as it is now.

So you end up having 2 physical NIC's in your pc.

We use that for people travelling.

stephenw10

@nollipfsense said in Cloud pfSense Firewall for on the Go:

how I then route the traffic between the firewall using someone else network.

Use a VPN. I do exactly that as do many others.

Yes, pfSense could be a cloud instance and that will likely give you best connectivity but you would almost certainly want it always on. Having to login to the cloud and boot it without the VPN would render it a pointless exercise IMO!
But home connections are generally fast these days and coffee shop wifi is often still crap! So you might find just using your home firewall is perfectly good.

Steve

NollipfSense

@nogbadthebad, @Cool_Corona , @stephenw10

Thank you all for responding. I have discovered OpenStack's Neutron network and Open vSwitch possibility and have installed OpenStack on VirtualBox to play with over the weekend. However, You all are correct that using home via VPN would be the best option for the iPad pro.