pfSense Digest

Sorry for the long delays. We have been working to make 1.2 the most fantastic release of pfSense yet. The delay has been caused by a number of very minor issues popping up but combined it has been enough to make us very cautious with this release.

Expect 1.2-RC4 sometime in the next couple of week and then we will test for a good week following up with the final release. So if all goes well, we should see 1.2 released around the 3rd week of January! Or even prior! Stay tuned…

Thanks to Centipede Networks it is now possible to login to pfSense RELENG_1 (development branch) via LDAP authentication !   In addition Centipede Networks sponsored bringing the multi user manager code from m0n0wall up to speed.  Expect to see some pretty nifty stuff in 1.3 that will surely be welcome to most pfSense admins.

If you have not checked out Centipede Networks you can find them at this URL.

We are considering proposing a tutorial at BSDCan 2008, and I want to gauge people’s interest in what Scott and I are currently discussing.

BSDCan offers 4 hour tutorials. We are considering putting together a 4 hour training course on pfSense, starting from an introduction and installation, and covering as much material as we possibly can in 4 hours. The tutorial cost in previous years was something like $50 USD, so even with travel expenses it’s still cheap. If we propose this and it’s accepted, it would be in May 2008 in Ottawa Canada.

Please leave a comment here or email me if you might be interested in attending this and/or have any suggestions on topics to be covered.

In this forum post, “rklopoto” describes how he runs pfSense WAN-less as only a DHCP server in an environment that already has a firewall. We didn’t think this was possible, it’s interesting what users run into! 

This isn’t the best solution as essentially a DHCP server appliance, but it works. And he has good reason to do so – a single consistent interface to train administrators to use.

You do need two interfaces in the box, though you can leave the WAN unplugged.  Then assign your LAN IP, and its default gateway as your WAN gateway. Just put in a fake/made up IP on a different subnet on the WAN page.

You can probably use a lot of different services in this fashion. Post a comment here, or on the forum or mailing list if you’ve done something like this.