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m1n1wall
Quick Start Guide
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................3
Assembly........................................................................................................................................................3
ALIX Board ...............................................................................................................................................3
Plugging everything in .............................................................................................................................4
Initial Configuration..................................................................................................................................4
Logging into the web interface........................................................................................................5
Setup Wizard...........................................................................................................................................5
Hostname.............................................................................................................................................5
Domain..................................................................................................................................................5
DNS Servers ........................................................................................................................................5
Time Zone and Server ....................................................................................................................6
WAN Configuration..........................................................................................................................6
Configure LAN Interface................................................................................................................7
Setting the password ......................................................................................................................7
Introduction to the web interface .............................................................................................8
Backing up and restoring........................................................................................................................8
What else can I do? ....................................................................................................................................8
Support ...........................................................................................................................................................9
Commercial Support ............................................................................................................................9
Free Support Options ..........................................................................................................................9
Forum ....................................................................................................................................................9
Mailing Lists........................................................................................................................................9
IRC...........................................................................................................................................................9
Configuring Wireless ............................................................................................................................. 10
Assigning the interface .................................................................................................................... 10
Configuring the interface ................................................................................................................ 10
IP Configuration ............................................................................................................................. 10
Wireless configuration................................................................................................................ 11
Configuring Firewall Rules........................................................................................................ 11
Using the serial console........................................................................................................................ 11
Windows using PuTTY..................................................................................................................... 11
Windows using Hyperterminal .................................................................................................... 12
Additional Documentation.................................................................................................................. 12
Introduction
Thank you for your purchase of the Netgate m1n1wall with pfSense. The ALIX
hardware platform in combination with the popular open source pfSense software
provides a powerful, cost‐effective solution for your network security needs.
This Quick Start Guide will help you get up and running with a basic configuration
on your m1n1wall.
Assembly
If you did not purchase a pre‐assembled kit, first you will need to assemble your
m1n1wall. The kit provides a board, case, Compact Flash (CF) card, and power
adapter. If you purchased a pre‐assembled kit, skip ahead to the next section.
ALIX Board
The following image shows the ALIX board, highlighting the serial port, compact
flash socket, and mini PCI slot where you can install an optional wireless card or
cryptography accelerator if purchased.
To install the board into the case, first remove the two hex nuts on the serial port,
then install the Compact Flash card, and put the board into the case. Reattach the
hex nuts on the serial port, and attach the board to the case using the four screw
holes on the corners of the board.
Plugging everything in
Now you have a fully assembled system and are ready to plug it in and get started
with the configuration. The following image shows the location of the WAN and LAN
ports.
If you are replacing an existing firewall on a production network, you will want to go
through the initial configuration with the device not plugged into your production
network. You can plug a laptop or desktop PC into the LAN port to perform the
initial configuration. For new networks, you can start by plugging the LAN into your
switch.
Note: The ALIX Ethernet ports are auto MDI/MDI‐X, meaning you can use
either a straight through or crossover CAT5 cable regardless of the type of
device you are connecting it to.
To get started, plug the LAN port into the network or system where you will
perform the initial configuration, and then plug in the power.
Initial Configuration
After powering on your ALIX, it will boot up and be ready for the initial
configuration after approximately two minutes. The initial boot takes longer if your
WAN interface is not plugged into something where it can receive a DHCP address,
as it must wait for that to time out. Once the system is booted, you should receive a
192.168.1.X IP address on the system(s) plugged into the LAN port from the DHCP
server.
Logging into the web interface
Browse to http://192.168.1.1 to access the web interface. You will be prompted for
username and password, the default username is admin and password is pfsense.
Setup Wizard
After logging in, the setup wizard will run. This will walk you through a few steps to
get up and running with a basic configuration. At the first screen, click Next. The
subsequent screen allows you to configure the hostname, domain and DNS servers
to be used.
Hostname
For hostname, choose a name for the host. This does not affect functionality.
Domain
If you have an existing DNS domain in use inside your network (such as a Microsoft
Active Directory domain), use that domain here. This is the domain suffix assigned
to DHCP clients, which you will want to match your internal network. For networks
without any internal DNS domains, you can fill in anything you want here.
DNS Servers
The DNS server fields can be left blank if you have a WAN connection using DHCP,
PPTP or PPPoE types of Internet connections and the ISP automatically assigns DNS
servers. When using a static IP on WAN, you must enter DNS server IPs here for
name resolution to function. You can specify DNS servers here even if your ISP
assigns different ones. Either enter the IPs provided by your ISP, or you may want to
consider using a service like OpenDNS (www.opendns.com) whose free service will
allow you to add content filtering and phishing protection amongst other benefits to
your pfSense install.
Click Next after filling in the fields as appropriate.
Time Zone and Server
The next screen allows you to configure the time (NTP) server to be used to
synchronize your firewall’s time, and also specify its time zone. The default NTP
server points you ntp.org’s NTP server pool. If you have an internal time server, you
should specify it here instead. You also want to select a city in your time zone so
your log timestamps are in local time (unless you have a policy to timestamp all logs
in GMT).
Click Next.
WAN Configuration
This page is where your Internet connection is configured. You will need
information from your ISP to configure this screen appropriately. A few notes to
assist you:
MAC address – if replacing an existing firewall, you may want to enter the old
firewall’s WAN MAC address here, if you can easily tell what that is. This commonly
avoids issues involved in switching out firewalls, such as ARP caches, ISPs locking to
single MAC addresses, etc.
If you can’t enter the MAC of your current firewall here, it probably isn’t a big deal –
power cycle your router or modem and your new MAC will usually be able to get
online. For some ISPs, you have to call when switching devices, or go through an
activation process of some sort.
Static IP configurations – the subnet mask is configured in CIDR format, which is
usually provided by the ISP in addition to the 255.x.x.x subnet mask. The following
table shows the most common subnet masks and their CIDR equivalent.
Subnet Mask CIDR
255.255.255.252 30
255.255.255.248 29
255.255.255.240 28
255.255.255.224 27
255.255.255.192 26
255.255.255.128 25
255.255.255.0 24
255.255.254.0 23
Block private networks and bogons – these two options will block private,
unassigned, and reserved IP subnets for traffic initiated on your WAN connection
(i.e. coming in from the Internet). These IP ranges should never be seen on the
Internet, and these should both be enabled on systems that are directly connected to
the Internet. If your WAN resides on a private network, you may not want to use
these options.
Configure LAN Interface
Here you configure the IP and subnet mask to be used on your LAN. If you don’t ever
plan to connect your network to any other network via VPN, the 192.168.1.x default
is fine.
If you want to be able to connect into your network using VPN from remote
locations, you should choose a private IP address range much more obscure than the
very common 192.168.1.0/24. Space within the 172.16.0.0/12 RFC1918 private
address block seems to be the least frequently used, so choose something between
172.16.x.x and 172.31.x.x for least likelihood of having VPN connectivity difficulties.
If your LAN is 192.168.1.x and you are at a wireless hotspot using 192.168.1.x (very
common), you won’t be able to communicate across the VPN – 192.168.1.x is the
local network, not your network over VPN.
Setting the password
Enter the admin password for your firewall here, and again to confirm. You should
choose a strong password, with a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.
Should you forget your password, you can reset it using a serial console on your
m1n1wall.
After entering your password and confirming it, click Next.
Then click Reload to apply your changes.
Introduction to the web interface
You are now at the front page of the pfSense web interface. This screen provides an
overview of your system resource utilization. The menu across the top of the screen
groups the various configuration, status and diagnostics screens. There are also
additional themes available to change the layout of the web interface, under System
‐> General Setup if you prefer a different look and feel.
Note: The default theme does not function on an iPhone or iPod Touch, but
when browsing from one of these devices, it will automatically switch to a
different, plainer theme that is functional. Yes, you can configure your
m1n1wall from your iPhone.
The default firewall rules can be viewed under Firewall ‐> Rules. If you need to
forward ports, you will configure them under Firewall ‐> NAT. More information on
port forwarding can be found here:
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/How_can_I_forward_ports_with_pfSense%3F
You can view your real time traffic throughput under Status ‐> Traffic Graph. For
many longer term statistics, browse to Status ‐> RRD Graphs. Logs can be viewed
under Diagnostics ‐> System logs.
Backing up and restoring
At this point your basic two interface LAN and WAN configuration is complete.
Before proceeding with additional configuration, you will want to get a backup of
your configuration. To do so, browse to Diagnostics ‐> Backup/Restore in the web
interface. Click the Download Configuration button, and a copy of your configuration
will be downloaded. You can restore this configuration at the same screen, by
choosing your backup file under “Restore configuration”.
If you purchased support with your m1n1wall, you also have access to the
AutoConfigBackup service. This will encrypt your configuration and upload it to our
servers every time you make a configuration change. Just don’t lose your encryption
key – it’s impossible for us to read anything in your backup, and it cannot be
restored without the key. You can find more information here:
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/AutoConfigBackup
What else can I do?
The pfSense software provides a wide array of functionality beyond the simple
configuration documented here. See the Additional Documentation section to find
information on this functionality and more. A few of the most commonly used
possibilities follow.
• Captive portal – allows you to present a splash page to all users upon
connecting to your network, optionally with authentication. This is
commonly used with wireless hot spots, or as an additional layer of
protection for wireless networks with authentication against a local user
database, or external RADIUS server such as Microsoft Active Directory.
• VPN – three types of VPNs are supported, IPsec, OpenVPN and PPTP. You can
use these options to connect roaming users for remote access, or site to site
connectivity to connect multiple locations.
• Multi‐WAN – multiple Internet connections with failover and load balancing
are supported. In combination with a VLAN capable switch, you can connect
numerous Internet connections over a single physical interface on the
firewall.
• Dynamic DNS – if your public IP is dynamic, you may want to sign up with a
dynamic DNS provider (many options are free) and use the Dynamic DNS
client to keep your hostname updated. This is especially helpful if you want
to access services like VPN remotely.
• Wireless – with a wireless kit available from Netgate, your m1n1wall can act
as a wireless access point, or be used in Ad‐hoc networks. It can also connect
to a wireless access point as a client – use your neighbor’s wireless as a
second WAN (with permission, of course), amongst many other possible
deployments.
Support
There are numerous support options available for the pfSense software.
Commercial Support
If you purchased commercial support along with your system, you received
information separately on accessing support. If you did not purchase support with
the system but would like to do so, please email supportinfo@pfsense.org or call us
at 1‐502‐410‐3710.
Free Support Options
There is a large community of pfSense users who volunteer their time to help others.
You may find all the help you need through the community, though generally not as
promptly as with commercial support, and with no assurance of response or a
resolution.
Forum
There is a very active forum at http://forum.pfsense.org.
Mailing Lists
Mailing lists are also available, with information at
http://www.pfsense.org/mailinglists.
IRC
The official IRC channel is #pfsense on FreeNode.
Configuring Wireless
This section describes how to configure wireless if you purchased a wireless kit. It
only covers configuration as an access point, though you can also use the wireless
interface for Ad‐hoc networks (IBSS) and for connecting to other access points
(BSS).
Assigning the interface
First you need to assign the wireless interface (ath0). Browse to Interfaces ‐>
(assign). Click the to add a new optional (OPT) interface, OPT1. In the drop down
box, select ath0.
Then click Save.
Configuring the interface
Next you will browse to Interfaces ‐> OPT1 to configure your wireless settings. Each
of the following sections covers portions of this configuration screen. First you will
want to check “Enable Optional 1 interface”, and you can change the name from
OPT1 to anything you like, if desired (ex: “Wireless”).
IP Configuration
You will either need to use a dedicated private IP subnet for the wireless, or bridge
it with another interface, such as your LAN. Bridging connects two interfaces into
the same network or IP subnet. Bridging your wireless to LAN will result in the two
residing on the same network. This is the most common deployment for home use.
Devices such as gaming consoles, network games, Apple AirTunes, iTunes Remote,
and many others common in home networks require wireless and wired devices to
be on the same network to function. In office networks, scenarios requiring this are
much less common.
If you do not bridge, you must select an IP subnet to use for the wireless network.
Using something close to LAN is preferable, and it must be different from LAN. If
LAN is 172.26.62.1/24 as shown previously, a good choice for wireless would be
172.26.63.1/24. You will also likely want to configure the DHCP server for this
interface under Services ‐> DHCP server after completing the wireless interface
configuration.
Wireless configuration
In depth discussion of all the wireless configuration options is outside the scope of a
quick start guide, but this section provides instructions on configuring a secure
access point typical of home networks or small offices.
For Mode, select Access Point. Enter a SSID to identify your network.
Configuring WPA
Under WPA further down the page, check “Enable WPA” and fill in a pre‐shared key
to be used for the network. If this key is easily guessable, your network is not secure.
Make the key as long as reasonably possible (12 characters should be considered a
minimum) containing a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and
symbols.
Under WPA Mode, select WPA2 and for WPA Pairwise, select AES.
The remaining values can all be left at their defaults. Click Save to bring up your
wireless interface.
Configuring Firewall Rules
You must add firewall rules to permit desired traffic before any traffic will be
allowed out from your wireless interface. To do so, browse to Firewall ‐> Rules, and
click the OPT1 tab (or if you named your interface differently, select the name
given). Click the to add a new rule. You may want to start with any protocol, any
source, and any destination – effectively allowing everything initiated on the
wireless interface. Then once you verify functionality, restrict your firewall rules as
desired.
After adding a firewall rule to allow traffic, your wireless network is complete.
Using the serial console
With the pre‐assigned interfaces on the m1n1wall, you do not need to use the serial
console to setup the device. You may want to access the console menu at times, for
instance if you need to reset your admin password. A null modem cable is required.
Most network professionals should already have one, they come with many
switches, routers and other network equipment (with Cisco being one notable
exception). They can be found for purchase at many electronics stores, and
considerably cheaper online.
Plug one end of the null modem cable into the serial port on the m1n1wall, and the
other into a serial port on a computer with a terminal emulator. USB to serial
adapters should work well for systems that don’t have a serial port.
Windows using PuTTY
PuTTY is a free option for Windows that includes serial console support.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
Select Connection type Serial, type in the COM port, and enter 38400 for the speed.
Windows using Hyperterminal
Hyperterminal is another free option for Windows.
http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal.html
Configure it as shown in the following screenshot.
Additional Documentation
This guide illustrates the basics for getting up and running with your m1n1wall.
There is much more that can be accomplished with the pfSense software. The best
source of information will be the coming book pfSense: The Definitive Guide available
from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers later in 2009. If you purchased
support, contact us and we will provide the latest work in progress copy
electronically.
There is also a growing amount of information freely available on the pfSense
documentation site at http://doc.pfsense.org.