PF Sense / TP Link Router / Parental Control Issue
-
New PF Sense owner here. I purchased a Protectli Vault appliance and am using that for my firewall. Devices in my configuration currently are: Arris Surfboard SB8200 cable modem (Internet) > Protectli Vault (WAN port) > TP Link BE900 Router (LAN Port on Protectli to LAN Port 1 on Router)
Not sure if this is the right group to post in but seeing a few other parental control questions in this group, I decided it might be the best (until told otherwise). Experience wise, I know just about enough of networking to be "dangerous".
Am newly married and took on 2 teenagers with the marriage. I quickly found myself overwhelmed trying to enforce technology time. After searching around a bit I liked TP-Link's parental control functions and decided to pick up the BE900 as it was a bit more visually appealing than the rest of the standard boxes with 4, 6, 8+ antennas. Have been using it now for about 6 months and have really liked the parental controls on this unit. Can set time limits, add time, block, view some of the sites visited etc. All around makes the experience of managing the Internet at home a lot better.
Lately been getting the urge to "tinker" and add to the home lab. I liked the idea of adding a home firewall and the ability to utilize VPN. I had the idea in my mind of connecting my home modem directly to the WAN port on the PFSense and then connect my TP Link Router to the LAN port. I disabled DHCP on the PFSense and left that enabled on the router. Rather than use the WAN port on the TP Link router I have the LAN ports on the PFSense running to LAN port #1 on the TP Link router. I turned NAT off on the router and have NAT configured on the PFSense.
The TP Link Router does throw a fit and thinks its not connected to the Internet but otherwise all the devices connected to it via Ethernet or WiFi can connect to the web just fine. Of note I did try turning on "bridge mode" and while that worked it completely disabled Parental Controls. It has to be in router mode to utilize parental controls.
So I thought I had claimed victory. Today however noticed one of the kids on their device and was on way more than they should have been. Checked my parental control app (Tether) and found that no traffic had been logged all day on any device connected to the TP Link Router. 0 Minutes logged and no sites visited. I know this isn't the case.
Looking around online I'm not finding much other than it might be a NAT issue. Anyone else have a similar layout and know what might be to blame? If I get more time before the weekend I'll continue to tweak and see if I can get running again.
-
@Justin7
Yes well that will not work since you have your TPLink connected on the LAN port (as an AP only). The parental control function requires traffic to go out on Internet via it's firewall. This you can do whilst maintaining pfsense as the main firewall but it means double NATing...What type of control are you trying to enforce? If it's access to specific sites or applications you could take a look at AdGuard Home. Then you go back to using pfsense as the DHCP server and hand out the IP of AdGuard as your DNS. And change the TPLink into a simple AP... I'm sure you can use some of the access control functions still. Perhaps schedule wifi access??
But in AdGuard you can set and block not just Ad's, malicious sites etc, but a whole range of applications as well. The App blocking is very simple to use with a nice UI and then the ability to set a schedule for the blocking.
Then there is pfBlockerNG as a plugin for pfsense.