pfsense

Setting up Pfsense in my home lab using Proxmox was a great learning experience. I’ve always been interested in network security and Pfsense is a powerful open-source firewall that allows me to have full control over my home network.

The first step was to create a new virtual machine in Proxmox, I allocated 8 vCpu and 8GB of memory to the VM. Then I installed Pfsense on the VM by using the ISO image and following the installation prompts.

One of the most important things to configure in Pfsense is the network interface, to get the best performance and security, I decided to pass through a PCI express 4 port NIC to the Pfsense VM. This allows Pfsense to access the full capabilities of the NIC and perform tasks such as traffic shaping, VPN, and Intrusion Detection System (IDS).

Passing through a NIC to a VM in Proxmox is a straightforward process and is the same way I passed through my TV tuner card to Plex VM and my HBA to my TrueNAS VM. What was most important was to remove the virtual NIC that was assigned the VM when it was created. I want all traffic to go through the hardware NIC.

With Pfsense up and running and the NIC passed through, I was able to configure the firewall rules, DHCP server, and VPN. Pfsense also includes many other features such as traffic shaping, intrusion detection, and reporting that I can use to further secure my network.

Setting up Pfsense in a home lab using Proxmox and passing through a NIC to the VM was a great learning experience. It allowed me to have full control over my network and improve its security. The