Configuration Questions
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Going to be installing PFsense 123
msi-k8m-neo-v mobo
1gb ram,
Realtek 8201CL LAN PHY(supports 10/100Mb/s auto negotiation operation)
(1) RJ 45 LAN Jack
DLink 4500 wireless router
ISP provided Cable modem ( Cisco 2100)
Linksys wrt54g pci card.Now, before i install pfsense onto this old computer. Do i need to unplug my current network setup.
ISP…....> cisco 2100 modem........> DLink 4500 router: port[1]comp1–-port[2]comp2–-port[3]comp3–-port[4]xbox360
and once i do successfully install will my default router "dlink4500" be useless….or do i need to reconfigure settings for it as wel ?
basically, i just want to use pfsense as a firewall, keeping my network safe, and block out unwanted sites "aka porn" for the kiddies....and adults....lol.
Any help with setting this up would be really appreciated, Thank you.
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Looks like your rig has only one NIC. You'll probably want to put a second one in there, one for WAN, one for LAN.
If you want to use your dlink as a switch and/or wireless access point (if it's a wireless router), check out this little howto:
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Looks like your rig has only one NIC. You'll probably want to put a second one in there, one for WAN, one for LAN.
If you want to use your dlink as a switch and/or wireless access point (if it's a wireless router), check out this little howto:
There are two NIC's: 1, onboard Ethernet Port: Realtek 8201CL LAN PHY(supports 10/100Mb/s auto negotiation operation)
2. Is the Linksys WRT54G PCI wireless Card.
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Sounds like you're ready to rock then.
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whats best to use as since i have one Etherenet port NIC and the other is Linksys pci wireless, should the lan be wireless or should lan be hardwired ?
should the wan be hardwired or should it be wirelessly ?
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Wired is preferred over wireless, all else being equal, on any interface. You can also bridge the wireless to the LAN if you want wired and wireless clients on a shared subnet.
This is assuming your wireless card supports hostap mode (most don't, I think). Otherwise. you can't use it as an AP in pfsense. You could probably still use it as a wireless WAN to connect to some other wireless network if you wanted.
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@420:
There are two NIC's: 1, onboard Ethernet Port: Realtek 8201CL LAN PHY(supports 10/100Mb/s auto negotiation operation)
2. Is the Linksys WRT54G PCI wireless Card.
Are you sure about the WRT54G PCI wireless card? I thought Linksys WRT54G was a range of wireless routers?
@420:
whats best to use as since i have one Etherenet port NIC and the other is Linksys pci wireless, should the lan be wireless or should lan be hardwired ?
should the wan be hardwired or should it be wirelessly ?
I would recommend:
ISP…....> cisco 2100 modem........> (Wired WAN) pfSense (wired LAN) -> DLink 4500 router: port[1]comp1–-port[2]comp2–-port[3]comp3–-port[4]xbox360
This requires an additional wired NIC for the pfSense box. As suggested in the documentation pages (http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Use_an_existing_wireless_router_with_pfSense, other links in http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Category:Wireless might be interestng reading) you would use one LAN port of the DLink to connect to pfSense and leave the DLink WAN port unconnected. You would probably need to tweak a few things to use the pfSense DHCP server for your whole network.
Having a wired LAN port can be very useful if you need to troubleshoot.
Until you find out the real model number (and probably revision) of the wireless PCI card its not possible to say if its supported in pfSense.To provide web filtering (blocking of nasty sites) you would need to add packages such as squid and squid guard or use something like one of the OpenDNS services (see http://www.opendns.com). Which one you choose would probably depend on the level of blocking you require.
I use pfSense as a wireless access point and firewall. I appreciate having one box to manage rather than two. Others have reported that they get better reliability with a separate wireless access point.