As a learning exercise I have began a project to build a home router using FreeBSD 10.1. I took the notion when I read this blog post by Kris Moore of the PC-BSD project http://blog.pcbsd.org/2015/01/using-trueos-as-a-ipfw-based-home-router/ I know that there are several good and capable NAT/firewall packages available such as pfsense and opnsense. I have used pfsense before, and it does it job well, but as mentioned above, the desire to learn how to do it, and hopefully, in the process learn more about networking and FreeBSD in general is my purpose.
Now of course, I wouldn’t be writing this if I were not having problems. Due to some differences in my service provider I was unable to follow the above blog post exactly. I will try to outline what my situation is, then try to explain what I have already done. Then explain what's not working.
The equipment. I have a http://www.pcengines.ch/apu1d4.htm . The apu1d4 uses Realtek RTL8111E network interfaces, which FreeBSD 10.1 now has good support for now. It used to be a bit sketchy, but much better now. I am also using a Compex mini-PCIe wi-fi adapter Model WLE200NX a/b/g/n for the wireless card inside of it. The card uses an Atheros chipset. It also uses an Intel 30 gb msata ssd as the hard drive. I used a standard FreeBSD 10.1 USB image, enabled the serial console in /boot/loader.conf and installed without any issues.
Now that I have a running system with stock FreeBSD 10.1 and a fresh
My intentions were then to assign one of the interfaces as my WAN uplink using pppoe and then to bridge the remaining wired interfaces with the wireless interface. Thus, creating a router basically like one that can be bought in a store for much cheaper and alot less aggravation, but I degress.
To keep the initial post from being one large wall of text I'll start a second post to explain my configuration.
Now of course, I wouldn’t be writing this if I were not having problems. Due to some differences in my service provider I was unable to follow the above blog post exactly. I will try to outline what my situation is, then try to explain what I have already done. Then explain what's not working.
The equipment. I have a http://www.pcengines.ch/apu1d4.htm . The apu1d4 uses Realtek RTL8111E network interfaces, which FreeBSD 10.1 now has good support for now. It used to be a bit sketchy, but much better now. I am also using a Compex mini-PCIe wi-fi adapter Model WLE200NX a/b/g/n for the wireless card inside of it. The card uses an Atheros chipset. It also uses an Intel 30 gb msata ssd as the hard drive. I used a standard FreeBSD 10.1 USB image, enabled the serial console in /boot/loader.conf and installed without any issues.
Now that I have a running system with stock FreeBSD 10.1 and a fresh
freebsd-update fetch update
Ill give some background on some of my particulars. My network provider has fiber to my home, but it still uses pppoe to make the connection. The provider has a demarc device that does nothing more than bridge the connection over to me. So that's the big wrinkle in the fabric. My intentions were then to assign one of the interfaces as my WAN uplink using pppoe and then to bridge the remaining wired interfaces with the wireless interface. Thus, creating a router basically like one that can be bought in a store for much cheaper and alot less aggravation, but I degress.
To keep the initial post from being one large wall of text I'll start a second post to explain my configuration.