How to Install and Configure pfSense 2.1.5 (Firewall/Router) for Your Home/Office Network

26. Open the given link using http protocol and enter the usernamd as ‘admin‘ and password ‘pfsense‘.

Access pfSense Web
Access pfSense Web

27. Once you logged in, a setup wizard window appears that will guide you through the initial configuration of pfSense.

pfSense Setup Wizard
pfSense Setup Wizard
pfSense Subscription
pfSense Subscription

28. On the next screen, enter the hostname, and domain for pfsense, by following provide a Primary DNS server and secondary DNS and click Next.

Fill General Information
Fill General Information

29. Choose the timezone and click next.

Select Timezone
Select Timezone
Configuring WAN

30. On this screen, configure WAN interface, if you have a PPOE connection or if you need to use this pfsense machine as a router, you need to choose PPOE from the drop menu or else simply select ‘static‘ and set the static IP address, gateway and click ‘Next‘ to continue…

Configure WAN Interface
Configure WAN Interface
Configuring LAN

31. We’ve already configured LAN network in terminal mode, just move forward by choosing NEXT.

Configure LAN Interface
Configure LAN Interface

32. Next, change the admin password, which is used to access the WebGUI and SSH.

Set pfSense Password
Set pfSense Password

33. After setting admin password, click on reload to make changes.

Reload pfSense Changes
Reload pfSense Changes
Reload in Progress
Reload in Progress
pfSense Configured
pfSense Configured

34. Click on the link, will take you to pfsense webconfigurator GUI Dashboard as shown in below picture.

pfSense WebGUI
pfSense WebGUI

Conclusion

pfsense can be used as router or firewall with many advanced features such as traffic shapper, Load Balancer and much more. It can be used in small scale to large scale environment. Hope this setup help you to build your own router and firewall for your environment. Give your valuable feedback in comment section for future help regarding this topic.

pfSense Documentation

Babin Lonston
I'm Working as a System Administrator for last 10 year's with 4 years experience with Linux Distributions, fall in love with text based operating systems.

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30 thoughts on “How to Install and Configure pfSense 2.1.5 (Firewall/Router) for Your Home/Office Network”

  1. Thanks for the tutorial. Now I have the following problem – when I select the disk with Windows 10 on which I would like to install pfSense, there is the following message: “This partition does not have a valid mountpoint (for the partition from which you intend to boot the operating system, the mountpoint should be “/”.

    This message is shown even if I have formatted the partition with free space for pfSense as EXT4. So I don’t know how to prepare a disk with Windows for the right pfSense installation, ao that I could during boot choose Windows or pfSense. Please could You help me via my e-mail? thank You very much in advance. Regards Fanda Waldorf

    Reply
    • I agree. I am a little confused by this as well. Shouldn’t you change you lan ip scheme to 192.128.1.x? I ask because I really think this is a good article and I am about to set this up in my lab, only it is being install on a Check Point UTM, and through console port. Thanks again!

      Reply
  2. I have a typo:

    pfsense1(LAN: 192.168.1.3 WAN:221.132.18.251) and pfsense2 (LAN: 192.168.1.2 WAN: 221.132.18.253). I’m config sync with LAN ok but with wan can’t sync, please help me. Thank.

    Reply
  3. If I am making pfSense as a network controller/firewall, should i run this on a dedicated machine or I can run it on a virtual machine installed on a main server? Thanks in advance

    Reply
  4. After installing pfsense.. do i shutdown and reboot my machine with windows? Will the pfsense still be runing at the background or do i need a totally seperate system for this? If i dont need, How do i configure my windows os to communicate with the pfsense installed in the hard disk

    Reply
    • @Thompson,

      Are you trying this in your desktop machine? Pfsense is a router if you configure network through pfsense it should UP continuously for uninterrupted internet connection.

      Reply
  5. This might have been helpful if this site had not put ‘https://www.tecmint.com’ at the bottom of each graphic. As it is now, I can’t read the last line in some of the pics.

    Reply
  6. I just heard about pfSense a couple of days ago, and that its great for all kinds of uses, including home networks. What kind of device should I install it on if I want it to cover my whole network? Can I install it on a router or what?

    Reply
  7. Dear Admin,

    This is very help full for those want to install pfSense. I want to know that can we use pfSense
    free of cost and without any license in corporate network.

    Reply
    • For Corporate network they are providing dedicated hardware, But open source can be used but there will be some performance issue while large number of handling.

      Reply
  8. Hi Sir,
    Just want to ask what if I have a static WAN Ip and gateway from my ISP, what should be my LAN settings?
    Thanks in advance

    Reply
  9. Great to see an article about pfsense. I think pfsense is often overlooked by Linux users. I have alternated using pfsense and ipfire for my home network. I use HP thin clients with expansion chassis for dual intel gb nic. (In the past I used older thin client with bulit in pci slot.) I have found both firewalls work very well in flash install. I currently use ipfire only because it allowed me to turn the built-in wifi into an access point. (I could not figure out how to do this with pfsense). Maybe you could future articles about flash install and configuration of pfsense for other readers? Thanks!

    Reply
    • @Rick,
      This is just the part one of the series, ther are more advance articles on pfSense to come under this series..stay tuned..

      Reply

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