BinaryMode
Active Member
Finally got around to going "enterprise grade" with my home network using OPNsense, a managed TP-Link switch supporting 802.11Q and the Grandstream 7660 AP also supporting 802.11Q. So far so good. I built it using a Dell Optiplex 3050 micro which sports an i3 3.5 GHz dual core CPU. More than enough power for my use and great on the energy savings. This computer only has one NIC, so I bought an M.2 to NIC adapter and installed that for my LAN connection which supports 802.11Q. It's manufactured by Ableconn and is a Realtek chipset. The WAN port is the Optiplex's NIC which is a Marvell chipset. Both NICs work despite me reading that since OPNsense uses BSD chipset compatibility is more geared toward Intel. The M.2 NIC was a little bigger than I thought and so you can't use the SSD holder. But I managed to connect the SSD above the M.2 NIC which works out with the cover and consequently the SSD helps hold down the M.2 NIC since its screw is for a 30mm and the Optiplex only has 60 and 80mm. The WLAN M.2 slot is far too short. I punched out the RS232 serial port in the case and ran flat CAT5e Ethernet though that inside the case connected to the M.2 NIC. Plenty of room for round Ethernet cable but just decided on flat type cabling from Monoprice.
Have been talking to ChatGPT about things I can do with this and I think I'll try the proxy filter plugin for on network virus filtering. Apparently that involves me changing my browser to a proxy in OPNsense, but I don't know how this will work if I use a VPN. Two different OSI layers... 3 and 7. Should work actually. There might be another way of doing this with a Windows proxy software who's name escapes me at the moment.
My next project is to migrate one of my low traffic websites to here at home on a dedicated small computer using Origin rules in Cloudflare. That way I can pipe traffic on a different port than 443 at home, keep my Cloudflare zone WAF stuff and block all IPs except Cloudflare's on the dedicated computer for security. I have high speed fiber so plenty of upload capacity.
Anyone mess with OPNsense or pfSense? If so what'd you use it for?
Have been talking to ChatGPT about things I can do with this and I think I'll try the proxy filter plugin for on network virus filtering. Apparently that involves me changing my browser to a proxy in OPNsense, but I don't know how this will work if I use a VPN. Two different OSI layers... 3 and 7. Should work actually. There might be another way of doing this with a Windows proxy software who's name escapes me at the moment.
My next project is to migrate one of my low traffic websites to here at home on a dedicated small computer using Origin rules in Cloudflare. That way I can pipe traffic on a different port than 443 at home, keep my Cloudflare zone WAF stuff and block all IPs except Cloudflare's on the dedicated computer for security. I have high speed fiber so plenty of upload capacity.
Anyone mess with OPNsense or pfSense? If so what'd you use it for?
