Firewall: It is a computer system or
network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting outward
communication. Firewall holds a lot of importance our technical world as it
assures our system's as well as data's security. And a firewall in a network
helps us to secure the whole network. It acts as a network security device that
grants or rejects network access to traffic flows between untrusted zones.
Thus, importance of Firewall.
To secure a network we
should always use a third party firewall instead of windows own firewall as it
make configuration of all network easy and in one system only. If you will use
windows own firewall you have to configure if PC by PC which will take a lot of
your time.
Setting up a firewall can be
complicating. Therefore in this article we will learn how to set up a firewall
using PFSense. By setting this firewall we will create a wall between our networks
which will delude our network into two parts i.e External network and internal
network.
You can download ISO image
for PFSenese from here:
Now that you have ISO image,
setup PFSense in your virtual machine just like you setup your windows and turn
its power on and PFSense will open:
And it will boot
itself automatically in few seconds:
Once it’s rebooted,
select accept these Settings
From the next dialogues
box select Quick/Easy Install.
When you click on ok
it will allow installation process to begin without asking unnecessary questions:
And the installation
begins:
Now for installing
custom configuration select Standard Kernel option.
And it will start installing:
Now, select Reboot
option so that the firewall can start.
Thus, rebooting will
begin.
After the rebooting
process, it will ask you if you want to setup VLAN's. Here just type n for
no and hit enter.
Now it will ask you
to name WAN and LAN interface. Give le0 name to WAN and le1 to
LAN. Then just hit enter when it asks you to name optional interface.
It will show you the
interfaces and their name now and will require your permission to proceed.
Press y for yes as you are permitting it to proceed.
Now, in the
following image you can see that it has automatically taken IP address for WAN
i.e 192.168.1.7, if you wish to set a desired IP for WAN then choose 2 option
and press 1 for the configuration of WAN.
It will ask you that
if you want to assign IPv4 IP address. Here, press n for no. When you
hit enter it will ask you if you want to assign IPv4 IP address. Here, enter
your desired IP address and press enter. Then it will ask you to give subnet
mask for the IP address that you have just entered. Now as our IP address was
of C-class we will give 24 as subnet mask. After hitting enter it will ask you
if you u want to give upstream gateway. Here, just press enter. And when it
asks you to set IPv6 via DHCP6 then simply press enter without typing anything
else as we do not require IPv6. And when it asks you for HTTP web configuration
press n for no.
You can see that
your desired IP for WAN has been set up. Hit enter to continue.
Similarly, you can
setup LAN IP address by selecting of 2 for assigning IP address and select 2
for LAN.
Just like before, it
will sak uou for the IP address of LAN and so you enter your LAN IP address.
And then it will ask you for subnet mask, here we have given subnet mask of 8
as our IP is of A-class. Just hit enter when it asks you to enter upstream gateway.
And also hit enter when it asks you to enter IPv6 as we do not require it. And
then press y for HTTP revert option.
And just like this,
your LAN IP address has been set up. Now, press enter to continue.
Now to check that
your firewall has been configured properly, lets ping an IP address. Select
option 7 and enter the IP address you want to ping. If it successfully pings
that means your firewall has been configured successfully. And you can press
enter to continue.
So, this is how you
can install and configure your firewall to protect your network.
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