Mandatory internet connection on new pfSense installer

Klinger

Hello folks,

yesterday I wanted to download pfSense 2.7.2 to setup a new firewall but apparently netgate did some major changes.

You can't simply download it anymore. You have to create an account add pfSense to your cart, go through checkout, add billing info to finally get to download the software. This was almost enough for me to say "Alright that's enough".
When you install pfSense it now wants to setup interfaces during install and stops the setup when it can't connect to netgate servers. I always setup my firewalls without an internet connection. So I can't install pfSense anymore.

Has anyone else experienced that? Does anyone know what's going on with that?

We're now considering switching our 16 pfSense firewalls to opnSense.

Kind regards

Popolou

@Klinger It's caused some disquiet but it can still be found here.

stephenw10

There are a bunch of advantages to the new Net installer but, yes, it does require net access to pull in the latest code.

In the mean time the legacy install images are still available at the link above.

Klinger

Good to know that the old installers are still available, at least for now. This new policy however still raises some concerns.
In our network we can't easily attach device to it. It has to register with the radius server and it has to use a proxy. Which is why we typically setup and configure a new firewall before we install it in our network.

I'm curious to see how pfSense will evolve from this.