Initial Configuration¶
Plug the power cable into the power port and press the power button on the front left (shown in the Input and Output Ports section) to turn on the Netgate® Firewall. Allow 4 or 5 minutes to boot up completely.
Warning
If the ISP Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) on WAN (e.g. Fiber or Cable
Router) has a default IP Address of 192.168.1.1
, disconnect the Ethernet
cable from the WAN port on the C2758 1U Security Gateway before proceeding.
Change the default LAN IP Address of the device during a later step in the configuration to avoid having conflicting subnets on the WAN and LAN.
Connecting to the Web Interface (GUI)¶
From the computer, log into the web interface
Open a web browser (Google Chrome in this example) and enter
192.168.1.1
in the address bar. PressEnter
.A warning message may appear. If this message or similar message is encountered, it is safe to proceed. Click the Advanced Button and then click Proceed to 192.168.1.1 (unsafe) to continue.
At the Sign In page, enter the default pfSense® Plus username and password and click Next.
Default Username:
admin
Default Password:
pfsense
The Setup Wizard¶
This section steps through each page of the Setup Wizard to perform the initial configuration of the firewall. The wizard collects information one page at a time but it does not make any changes to the firewall until the wizard is completed.
Tip
The wizard can be safely stopped at any time for those who wish to perform the configuration manually or restore an existing backup (Backup and Restore).
To stop the wizard, navigate away from the wizard pages by clicking the logo in the upper left of the page or by choosing an entry from one of the menus.
Note
Ignore the warning at the top of each wizard page about resetting the
admin
account password. One of the steps in the Setup Wizard is to change
the default password, but the new password is not applied until the end of
the wizard.
Click Next to start the Setup Wizard.
Click Next after reading the information on Netgate Global Support.
Use the following items as a guide to configure the options on the General Information page:
- Hostname:
Any desired hostname name can be entered to identify the firewall. For the purposes of this guide, the default hostname
pfsense
is used.- Domain:
The domain name under which the firewall operates. The default
home.arpa
is used for the purposes of this tutorial.- DNS Servers:
For purposes of this setup guide, use the Google public DNS servers (
8.8.8.8
and8.8.4.4
).Note
The firewall defaults to acting as a resolver and clients will not utilize these forwarding DNS servers. However, these servers give the firewall itself a way to ensure it has working DNS if resolving the default way does not work properly.
Type in the DNS Server information and Click Next.
Use the following information for the Time Server Information page:
- Time Server Hostname:
Use the default time server address. The default hostname is suitable for both IPv4 and IPv6 NTP clients.
- Timezone:
Select a geographically named time zone for the location of the firewall.
For this guide, the Timezone will be set to
America/Chicago
for US Central time.
Change the Timezone and click Next.
Use the following information for the Configure WAN Interface page:
The WAN interface is the external (public) IP address the firewall will use to communicate with the Internet.
DHCP is the default and is the most common type of WAN interface for home fiber and cable modems.
Default settings for the other items on this page should be acceptable for normal home users.
Default settings should be acceptable. Click Next.
Configuring LAN IP Address & Subnet Mask. The default LAN IP address of
192.168.1.1
and subnet mask of24
is usually sufficient.Tip
If the CPE on WAN (e.g. Fiber or Cable Modem) has a default IP Address of
192.168.1.1
, the Ethernet cable should be disconnected from the WAN port on the C2758 1U Security Gateway before starting.Change the default LAN IP Address of the device during this step in the configuration to avoid having conflicting subnets on the WAN and LAN.
Change the Admin Password. Enter the same new password in both fields.
Click Reload to save the configuration.
After a few seconds, a message will indicate the Setup Wizard has completed. To proceed to the pfSense® Plus dashboard, click Finish.
Note
This step of the wizard also contains several useful links to Netgate resources and methods of obtaining assistance with the product. Be sure to read through the items on this page before finishing the wizard.
Finishing Up¶
After completing or exiting the wizard, during the first time loading the Dashboard the firewall will display a notification modal dialog with the Copyright and Trademark Notices.
Read and click Accept to continue to the dashboard.
If the Ethernet cable was unplugged at the beginning of this configuration, reconnect it to the WAN port now.
This completes the basic configuration for the Netgate appliance.