Summary
Highlights
The video introduces the tutorial on installing pfSense on VirtualBox for creating a testing network environment. It reminds viewers to like and subscribe for more tech tutorials. The first step involves downloading the pfSense ISO image from its official website. Before that, it's recommended to download and install VirtualBox, skipping this if already installed. The video demonstrates installing VirtualBox on a Windows machine.
After VirtualBox installation, the next step is to download the pfSense ISO image. Viewers are advised to choose the amd64 version and select the DVD image installer, then pick a mirror closest to their location for faster downloads. The video then instructs on downloading and installing 7-Zip, a free and open-source file archiver, which is necessary to extract the downloaded pfSense ISO image.
With VirtualBox and the pfSense ISO ready, the tutorial moves to setting up a new virtual machine. This involves naming the VM (e.g., PF Sense), selecting the downloaded pfSense ISO image, choosing 'BSD' as the type and 'FreeBSD (64-bit)' as the version. The video explains that pfSense is based on FreeBSD. It recommends allocating at least 1GB of RAM (preferably more, like 4GB as shown) and at least one CPU. For the virtual hard disk, 10GB is sufficient, but more can be allocated if many packages are planned.
The next critical step is to configure multiple network interfaces for the pfSense firewall. Adapter 1 will serve as the WAN interface, Adapter 2 as the LAN adapter, and Adapter 3 as the DMZ. These virtual machines will operate in VirtualBox's internal network mode, allowing them to communicate with each other but isolating them from the host machine and external networks.
To start the installation, select the pfSense virtual machine and click 'Start'. The video shows the initial boot process and guides through accepting the copyright notice, pressing enter to install pfSense, and proceeding with default settings. It advises choosing 'stripe' for installing on a single disk, selecting the virtual hard disk, and confirming the installation. Patience is required as the installation takes some time.
After installation, it's crucial to remove the ISO file from VirtualBox before rebooting to prevent restarting the installation process. The video demonstrates rebooting the virtual machine. Upon the first boot, pfSense will automatically identify network adapters, with 'en adapter 1' as WAN and the others as LAN and DMZ/OPT. DHCP is enabled by default on the LAN interface, with an IP range in 192.168.1.x.
To configure pfSense, another virtual machine, such as Ubuntu (or Windows 10/11), needs to be installed in the same internal network to connect to pfSense's LAN. The video demonstrates installing an Ubuntu VM, then changing its network adapter to 'Internal' to connect to the pfSense LAN. It verifies that the Ubuntu VM picks up an IP address from the pfSense DHCP server. Finally, it shows how to access the pfSense dashboard via a web browser using the LAN interface IP, mentioning a certificate error that can be ignored for now. Login uses default credentials: username 'admin' and password 'pfSense' (both lowercase).
The video concludes by stating that users should run through the initial configuration wizard to finalize the pfSense setup. It also mentions another video in the description for basic pfSense configurations. The presenter thanks viewers for watching and encourages them to subscribe for more tutorials.