How to Install ‘IPFire’ Free Firewall Linux Distribution

Step 6: Set DNS and Gateway Settings

27. Choose DNS and Gateway Settings to configure the DNS and gateway. Here we can provide a Manual DNS or it will get assigned because we used DHCP in above step. If you need to be relief from these headache? Just leave this blank.

Select DNS and Gateway
Select DNS and Gateway
DNS IP Settings
DNS IP Settings

Choose DONE to exit from DNS settings.

Step 7: DHCP server Configuration

28. We need to configure DHCP settings for our GREEN interface for LOCAL/INTERNAL interface. To get IP for client machine’s from DHCP.

DHCP pool range will be from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.100

Configure DHCP Settings
Configure DHCP Settings

29. We are almost completed our setup, Choose OK to complete IPFire setup.

IPFire Setup Completed
IPFire Setup Completed

Step 8: Post Installation Setup

30. After reboot, we will get the Command line access using root credentials which we provided during setup at step #15 above.

USERNAME	:	root
PASSWORD	:	redhat123$
IPFire Commandline Access
IPFire Commandline Access

31. To access the web interface use the below URL, Which we used for the GREEN interface local/internal will be used for the WEB interface. Enter the username as “admin” and password that we’ve set at #step 16 above.

https://192.168.1.1:444/
IPFire Web Access
IPFire Web Access

32. Once you logged in, you will get the Dashboard of the web Interface in IPFire.

IPFire Dashboard
IPFire Dashboard

There are many features included in IPFire they are as follows, Web Proxy with squid, URL filter, Update accelerator, DHCP server, Connection scheduler, DNS Server, DNS forwarding, Static Routes, Wake-ON-LAN, Open VPN, Dynamic DNS (DDNS), Time server, Bandwidth monitoring, Memory usage, Log collector for every services, Syslog, Firewall rules, P2P networks, iptables, Backup options and restore for configurations, Shutdown etc..

Following are the screen shots of IPFire features.

Advanced Web Proxy
Advanced Web Proxy
URL Filter Configuration
URL Filter Configuration
DHCP Configuration
DHCP Configuration
Iptables Connection Tracking
Iptables Connection Tracking

Conclusion

We have seen how to protect our office or home network with IPFire firewall/Router, IPFire was a German based Linux distribution only focused on security. Hope you have found this article simple and easy to install and configure firewall for your office or home environment. Don’t forget to fire your comments below after working around with IPFire..

Reference Links

IPFire HomePage
IPFire 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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16 thoughts on “How to Install ‘IPFire’ Free Firewall Linux Distribution”

  1. I need some help immediately please, I am trying to setup ipfire in my virtual environment and got to the stage where set-password is required but my keyboard won’t input anything in the field. Is there any special key to use for typing in there?

    Reply
  2. Nice writeup.

    I’ve been using ipfire as my production firewall appliance for about 5 years. It is very simple yet very powerful.

    I moved to ipfire from ipcop years ago because of the active development and modern kernel. Ipcop was secure and functional but was just kind of stagnating on innovation and moving forward to operate on today’s hardware.

    I’m surprised I don’t see more about ipfire in any the tech sites I visit.

    Thanks for promoting this great tool!

    Reply
  3. I can’t access the web interface after installation.
    I ping the green interface from my notebook and then ping my notebook from the virtualbox with the ipfire and it’s all right.

    My network range is 10.0.0.0 ~ 10.0.0.255
    IPFire range is 10.0.1.0 ~ 10.0.1.10

    I’ve tried access at: https://10.0.1.1:444 it loads for minutes, then it stops.

    Reply
    • What are the colors you chooses for interface’s how many interfaces are there? Can you give the information about IP, subnet, dhcp used in both interfaces

      Reply
  4. My Red IP is 133.82.0.4/24 and Green IP is 133.82.0.1/20.
    IPFIRE is running on NAT.
    In above condition 133.82.0.xxx/20 IP address is not working in Green LAN.
    I want to disable the NAT and enable the routing.
    What are the procedure for disable the NAT and enable the routing between green to red.

    Reply
  5. Hi Babin,

    i am unable to get the web interface i have chosen GREEN+RED

    my current network design is

    Internet (ISP)–> Modem–> Ipfire
    Red= wan=192.168.1.5 via dhcp from internet modem/router
    Green=lan=192.168.100.8 static lan

    please help to get the web interface

    Reply
      • Yes I’v entered “https://192.168.100.8:444/” in the client browser. The IP is pinging from client machine and Service Scan on this IP reveiled “3 services running; 53:domain; 81:host2-ns; 444:snpp”.

        Reply
        • Could you please give me the Network range of your Desktop? 192.168.1.0.x or 192.168.1.x? Or else? What is your Desktop IP range and have you tried by routing to 192.168.100.0 ?

          My desktop ip 192.168.0.254, network range is 192.168.0.0 but my ipfire range was 192.168.1.0 i have routed to 192.168.1.0 using:

          $ sudo route add default gw 192.168.0.254 eth0
          $ sudo route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.254 eth0
          
          This will allow us to access web UI in 192.168.1.1.
          Reply

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