Getting ready

The WAN interface is your connection to the outside world. You'll need a properly configured WAN interface (as described in the previous chapter) and an Internet connection. In this example, a cable modem provides the Internet connection from our local Internet Service Provider (ISP), but pfSense will support every other major connection method.

How to do it...

How it works...

We must first establish our connection to the Internet before we can configure pfSense to allow our other networks to access it. The example we've performed is typical of many SOHO environments. By placing our firewall as the only machine with direct access to the Internet, we are securing our environment by establishing complete control over the traffic that flows in and out of our networks. All traffic must now pass through our firewall and abide by our rules.

There's more...

We can now connect our WAN device (cable modem) to the WAN Ethernet port we've defined on our pfSense box. Once the connection has been established, we can check the status of our WAN port from Status | Interfaces:

See also