pfSense

The pfSense project was created in 2004 as a fork of the popular m0n0wall distribution by Chris Buechler and Scott Ullrich. From the very beginning, it was aimed at full installation on a computer, as opposed to the focus of m0n0wall on embedded systems. However, pfSense is also available as an image for CompactFlash-based embedded systems. Version 1.0 was released on October 4, 2006 ^[6] .

The name was formed from the abbreviation of packet filters - pf ^[7] .

Version 2.3 was developed, which brought a lot of improvements, including tools for centralized management of a large number of pfSense systems ^[8] . Version 2.3 contains full IPv6 support in basic services.

At the moment, version 2.3.4 is released, in which 24 errors and 11 functions were fixed ^[9] .

• Firewall
• State table
• NAT - Network Address Translation
• Redundancy - two or more firewalls can be combined into a fault-tolerant group; settings are also synchronized between them
  • CARP - CARP from OpenBSD allows you to create hardware protection against failures. Two or more firewalls can be combined into a fault-tolerant group. In the event of a network interface failure on the main firewall, the active one becomes different. PfSense also provides the ability to synchronize settings: if settings are changed on one firewall, they will automatically be synchronized on another.
  • pfsync - pfsync provides firewall state replication. This means that all existing network connections will be preserved if one of the firewalls fails, which is very important to ensure network resiliency.
• Outbound and Inbound Load Balancing - provides connection to several providers with a uniform distribution of traffic between them (the user who opens the web page does not notice that the elements of this page are loaded through different channels)
• VPN Server - IPsec , OpenVPN , PPTP
• PPPoE server
• Dynamic DNS
• DHCP server and gateway
• Proxy server
• Captive portal - redirect to a special web page for authorization for Internet access
• Monitoring and graphical reports using RRD
• LiveCD operation
• Support for software modules.

The most significant extensions:

• Squid - proxy server
• Snort - intrusion detection / neutralization system.

When deploying a system with an expected throughput of less than 10 Mbps, the minimum system requirements are: a processor with a clock frequency of 100 MHz or more, RAM 128 MB or more.

A system with a bandwidth of 200 Mbps will require: a processor with a clock frequency of 1000 MHz, RAM at least 512 MB.

For a bandwidth of up to 500 Mbps you will need: a processor with a clock frequency of 2000-3000 MHz, a RAM of 1024 Mb or more.

To deploy a system with a data transfer rate of 1000 Mbps between two interfaces, Pentium 4 with a frequency of 3000 MHz or faster can be used with a PCI-X or PCI-e adapter, as PCI bus restrictions will prevent performance gains between two 1 Gb adapters. RAM 2048 MB or more.

Requirements for the amount of RAM are presented depending on the tasks. For example: it is required to organize an unconditional joint access to the Internet of a small enterprise at a data transfer rate to the provider of 100 Mbps. A sufficient configuration will be: a 1 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM. All the same thing + Internet access through a proxy server with statistics: - It is desirable to increase the amount of RAM to 512 MB.

• October 4, 2006 - pfSense version 1.0 ^[10] .
• October 20, 2006 - pfSense version 1.0.1 ^[11] .
• February 25, 2008 - pfSense version 1.2 ^[12] .
• December 26, 2008 - pfSense version 1.2.1 ^[13] .
• January 7, 2009 - pfSense version 1.2.2 ^[14] .
• December 10, 2009 - pfSense version 1.2.3 ^[15] .
• September 17, 2011 - pfSense version 2.0 ^[16]
• December 20, 2011 - pfSense version 2.0.1 ^[17]
• December 21, 2012 - pfSense version 2.0.2 ^[18]
• April 15, 2013 - pfSense version 2.0.3 ^[19]
• September 15, 2013 - pfSense version 2.1.0 ^[20]
• April 4, 2014 - pfSense version 2.1.1 ^[21]
• April 10, 2014 - pfSense version 2.1.2 ^[22]
• May 2, 2014 - pfSense version 2.1.3 ^[23]
• June 25, 2014 - pfSense version 2.1.4 ^[24]
• August 27, 2014 - pfSense version 2.1.5 ^[25]
• January 23, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2 ^[26]
• March 17, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2.1 ^[27]
• April 15, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2.2 ^[28]
• June 25, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2.3 ^[29]
• July 26, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2.4 ^[30]
• November 4, 2015 - pfSense version 2.2.5 ^[31]
• December 21, 2015 - 2.2.6 ^[32]
• April 12, 2016 - pfSense version 2.3 ^[33]
• May 04, 2017 - pfSense 2.3.4
• October 12, 2017 - pfSense 2.4.0
• October 16, 2017 - pfSense 2.4.1
• December 8 - pfSense 2.4.2
• December 12 - pfSense 2.4.2_1
• March 29, 2018 - pfSense 2.4.3
• September 24, 2018 - pfSense 2.4.4
• May 15, 2019 - pfSense 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3

• m0n0wall
• Pf
• OPNsense
• IPCop

• pfsense.com - official PfSense website
• pfSense Features
• pfSense Screenshots
• PF: The OpenBSD Packet Filter
• Review & configuration tutorial at Free Software Magazine
• DIY pfSense firewall system beats others for features, reliability, and security at TechRepublic
• PfSense setup reviews
• Practical solutions in pictures in Russian pfSense (Russian) . Caution - the site is filled with Adware (Russian) !