Netgate pfSense Initial Setup

Glenn Ace Tenorio

Senior Network Engineer at American School of Dubai

The initial setup is very straightforward and intuitive.

We use the pfSense software directly and install it on our rack servers. So, we're adding three instances of that.

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Paulo Janeiro LJT

Information Technology System Administrator / Director at Legault Joly Thiffault

The initial installation was very difficult, it took approximately one week.

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Eduardo Monteiro.

IT Manager at Prologica

I am implementing it in two phases. In the first phase, it was implemented directly on hardware on an old computer with five NICs, and everything went smoothly. The second stage is virtualizing this machine into a Proxmox server, which is a bit more tricky. It is quite difficult to make it work on the NIC hardware system.

The first phase is very easy. It is almost plug-and-play. We just have to install it and activate the NICs. Everything will go smoothly. The second phase is not easy because I have to make double configurations on Proxmox and on pfSense. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of the ease of setup.

In terms of our environment, I have one computer connected directly to the Internet's router, and then all the information is passed through and managed, so I can filter everything by MAC address in my network. I have it on one computer, but my whole network is using it.

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JoseMorales3

IT Manager at Gandia Consulting Group

The initial setup was straightforward.

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it_user224304

Corporate Trainer / Systems Administrator at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup has gotten to be much more streamlined. I think that for the average home user experimenting with networks, this *might* be a *little* hard to figure out at first, but the overall setup is generally a breeze. There shouldn't be any reason that someone can't figure it out in more than 15 minutes a BASE installation and network configuration.

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Romani Labib

Director of Information Technology at MASFinancials

The initial setup is too easy.

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Patrick Mueller

Consultant at PM Solutions

The Initial setup is very easy.

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SaeedALi

Deputy Manager IT & OIC Head of IT Department (Infrastructure & Operation). at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

Installation is straightforward, especially for IT professionals. During the installation process, you are prompted to input the brand of the internet and LAN cables. If you're unsure, you can simply connect the cables – one for the internet and one for LAN – and proceed. You can choose to use either one or two cards based on your preference.

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JOHN LEONARD

Head of IT Department at OLIVESTRONIX NIGERIA LTD

Setting up pfSense is easy, but it depends on your experience level. The average person with an IT background who is grounded in ICT can do install and configure pfSense in 15 to 30 minutes.

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Dilawer Ali

Acting Manager IT at National Insurance Company Limited

It was complex and done by the vendor.

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Tony Williams

Managing Director at Midgard IT

The initial setup is not overly complex or difficult. It is very straightforward. We connect and we just have got a couple of standard procedures to setup once it's complete. We could probably get one up and running between half an hour to an hour. The deployment is fast and the whole process is pretty seamless at this point.

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Lonny Buchmann

Owner at The Computer Guy

Sometimes firewalls can get a little complicated. I think some of the things about the setup could be a little bit clearer. Maybe something like a configuration wizard or something that would guide you on more in-depth projects.

I'm running pfSense on old hardware, it takes all of 10 minutes to install.

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Ray Ost

CEO at Private

Ever since the first time I used it, it's very straightforward, it's very easy.

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Ahmed Mrosy

Information Technology Lead at Mega Trust

The installation of pfSense is very easy. It took two to three hours.

It is easy to maintain. We did not have to do any maintenance of pfSense since we installed it.

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Paco Lafuente

System Administrator at LafuentePaca

It is easy to install the tool. We need two weeks to deploy it. One person can deploy the solution. It is also easy to maintain. One person can maintain the solution.

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JoaoBrito

Owner at artesistemas.net

It is not very easy, but it is straightforward. We have an agreement with the clients to have the equipment and install the appliance in three or four days.

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Sebastian Morales

Product Manager at Infokrause

The initial installation is easy.

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Stephane Boudant

IT Manager at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup is very simple and the configuration is user-friendly. It took me one day for the whole process.

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Amandio Zumba

Director De Tecnologias da Information at EPAL-EP

When it comes to setting up the solution, it's not a complex process. It's pretty straightforward in general.

The deployment took maybe a month and a half.

We have two teams that handle deployment and maintenance tasks. One team is internal and the other is external. They're mostly engineers and they work together.

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Stephane Boudant

IT Manager at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Its initial setup is very easy.

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Buford Laruan

Network Administrator at Benguet State University

It is quite easy. It is up in a few minutes even though I reinstalled the whole thing. For me, it is as straightforward as it can get. I'm a long-time user, and I don't see any problems with the configuration.

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ZelalemGedefie

Senior System Administrator at Debre Markos University

The installation of the solution is not overly complex or difficult. It's easy. It's straightforward. e didn't have any issues with eh implementation process. A company should find the setup very simple.

The deployment was very fast. It only took a few minutes.

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reviewer1721859

Chef at a media company with 11-50 employees

It is easy to set up if you understand the protocols. If you understand the theory of what is a firewall and what is a router, its initial setup is straightforward.

Its deployment took one week. The strategy was simple. It involved blocking certain traffic, allowing certain traffic, and making ACL or a list of undesired operations such as cookies so that if it is impossible to sniff, and there is complete security. If someone is trying to enter, I immediately get a message on my phone, whether I am in the county or abroad. I immediately get a message saying that somebody is trying to enter, and I am able to counterattack immediately. That's a big advantage of it.

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Javier Ruiz

General Manager at Galgus

It is easy to deploy. Our real deployments are for WiFi networks, and then we add one or two firewalls to protect the network. For a small network, it can take one week. For a more complex network, it could be two or three months. We have a few upcoming projects which would require severe thousand firewalls, and it would take us more than a year.

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OSCAR ARANGO

Systems Manager at CORNARE

The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty straightforward. The onboarding process is pretty good. They make everything very, very easy. People shouldn't have any issues with implementation.

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Eddie Kibuuka

Manager, Operations at SUS-TECH Limited

The deployment didn't take too long. I have experience in pfSense, as does my junior. We were able to deploy it within a couple of hours - at least for what we wanted it to do off the bat.

Basically, you need to get all the rules together. We were able to do that within a couple of hours. Obviously, I must say, if we wanted to do a lot more, it would take us quite some time. Unfortunately, we're quite a small team, so we've got quite a lot on our plate and we just honestly did not have the time to get really granular.

That's the reason why we're moving to something a little bit more user friendly for our size.

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Alfredo Cornell

Chief Technology Officer at Xpro Networks

The initial setup is fairly simple, not complex. We can get the deployment done in around half an hour.

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it_user221862

Cloud Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Very straight forward. If anyone has ever installed any kind of OS or set up a firewall, it will be a piece of cake.

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reviewer1026420

Systems Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It was not complex. I was able to do it myself, but we had some problems with some of the protocols, and we had to get one of their coders to get in and look at it. Because of that, it was a little complicated to do the high availability stuff.

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reviewer1164756

IT Support Specialist with 51-200 employees

The initial setup has a bit of a learning curve. It's not complex per se. It just takes some getting used to. After the initial deployment, the other six or seven were easy. I could just copy the configuration of the other ones, change some IP addresses, and I was basically done.

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reviewer963351

IT Manager & Sr. Application Programmer with 11-50 employees

Not only was it straightforward, but if you know nothing about firewalls, you can install this. Especially since they recently made their entire guidebook free to use. Not to mention the countless blogs and how to's. Low to intermediate level IT pros should be able to handle this baby.

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it_user701439

IT Support Engineer

The setup of pfSense was very straightforward for the most part. Usually, when something isn't working, it's because the "Apply" button wasn't clicked.

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T Over

VP of Business Development at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The initial setup is pretty straightforward if you have your ducks in a row if you understand the IP engineering and design, and you understand some of the protocols that you want to introduce into the environment. I think one of the biggest things that it allowed us to do also was remote desktop or remote access. We filtered out remote management. We shut those ports down within pfSense, and that seemed pretty straightforward. I think the GUI has a little too much information out there, but if you're a senior engineer, you're going to love all the information because it makes sense to you. If you're a junior or a freshman engineer, you're not going to mind it either because you can use it to teach yourself how to take advantage of that information that's there.

On the front end of this, I thought it was rather intuitive.

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it_user222798

IT Support Specialist at Tech Solutions

It's straight forward for anyone that's installed an OS before, however, I wouldn't recommend it for the novice.

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Peter

Software Applications Manager at a engineering company with 201-500 employees

The initial setup is not to complex.

It's good to have the basic information before attempting to set everything up. They've got a wiki with all basic information and there are the fora for questions.

I've got a CCNA certificate and that some comes in handy. For me, it works without any documentation, however, for a complete novice user you probably need some documentation to get you through the process.

Getting everything up and running only took about 30 minutes. You then have a complete firewall solution up-and-running.

There is some maintenance required. You do need to check for updates from time to time, for example. If you install more plugins more maintenance might be required to get everything tuned.

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JoaoBrito

Owner at artesistemas.net

The initial setup is very linear and very smooth.

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Omer Mohammed

Senior System Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup is straightforward.

If you have solid knowledge and experience in IP tables, then it will be easy for you to deal with this product or any firewall. For example, Palo Alto or Fortinet. It's the same concept.

Depending on your activities, it can take a long time to deploy if you are new to this solution. For me, it takes less than one hour.

You have to understand the network technology and you have to understand what you are going to protect, and what service are you looking to protect. If you address these questions correctly, the installation is just a matter of a couple of clicks.

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Muhammad_Irfan

Sr. Network Administrator at ACMC

The installation is very easy.

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Leon Pinto

Consultant and Head of Services at ILANZ LLC

The initial setup was straightforward. I come from the IT industry, so I had no issues. Within 20 minutes, I had it up and running.

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Davy MOUSSAVOU

Head of Department of operational and compliance at ACE GABON

It's not very complex to set up. However, it can become complex as you're using it, and when you are learning the systems. In that sense, it might not be straightforward for everyone.

When it comes to using pfSense, you need to have extreme skills in Linux and in troubleshooting. If you don't have any form of troubleshooting competency, it could be very difficult to use, and very hard to set it up.

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Koen Van Cauwenberghe

Network and Office Manager at Belgo Metal CW n.v.

The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product.

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it_user266880

Senior System Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees

It was easy.

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Bojan Oremuz

CEO at In.sist d.o.o.

The initial setup is complex. If you have a straightforward setup then you will have straightforward, basic protection and nothing else.

It takes a few months to adjust where you start by setting it up, and then you have to monitor it and see what's happening. It's ongoing work because, after this, you have to keep monitoring and adjusting to the situation. This is part of the service that we perform for our customers.

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Victor Hugo Morales Vivas

Jefe de Infraestructura y Servicios de TI at Grupo ASD

The initial setup of pfSense was simple. However, when we install filters or agents it can be difficult.

I rate the initial setup of pfSense an eight out of ten.

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reviewer1750056

Information Technology at a transportation company with 51-200 employees

In terms of the initial setup, pfSense seems pretty easy. I'd say it's been a few years since we played with it and I don't really remember too much about it other than using it and thinking it was okay. It's just not listed as FIPS compliant for where we're at now in government, which is an issue.

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reviewer126042

Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

You only need a couple of minutes to install pfSense, then it just sits and works. You boot the USB drive and install it. After that, there's no more management. Any IT professional can easily set it up. Business owners who don't know anything about technology might have a hard time, but the average IT person can do it with no problem. There's good documentation online.

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reviewer1053252

Technical Presales Consultant/ Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The initial setup is very easy, it takes about 15 minutes.

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reviewer1585659

Head Of Infrastructure at a transportation company with 201-500 employees

The solution is easy to deploy.

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Malik Yusuf

Solution Architect, Managed Services & System Integration at Transmeet Technologies

It's definitely complex compared to other firewalls because you have to configure everything, read a lot of documents, and following a lot of formulas and templates. Everyone has to develop their own recipes to work with. There is no proper way forward.

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Sandeep-Pandita

Head of information Techenology at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees

The installation was not too complicated. We did have some issues with the port forwarding, some of the server application were not getting through the firewall but we managed to get it to work.

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Bojan Oremuz

CEO at In.sist d.o.o.

If you carry out a straightforward setup, then you will have straightforward, basic protection, nothing else. It's more complex if you want other things included. We usually start with some research, carry out a basic setup and make the initial monitoring. From there we make additions based on the results of the complete monitoring. Then it's ongoing monitoring all the time and setting or adjusting to the situation.

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VinodGupta

CEO and Founder at Indicrypt Systems

The initial setup is a little complex, of intermediate difficulty. It takes about a day.
In terms of deployment, the entire system has been installed and configured to basically take care of a network of roughly around 35 to 40 computers. We have a dedicated physical machine which has been configured and installed throughout.

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CandidoViandro

National IT Coordenator at a government with 51-200 employees

I have some experience with Linux distributions, so setting up pfSense was a bit easier for me, and I have been working with security for quite some time. It was fast for me, but part of my team is not used to a Linux environment, so it was tricky for them to implement add-ons to the appliance.

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Haytham Tarek

Founder and MD at Smart Solution

Lots of reading and trial and error. It's tough for the network engineer, but it is magnificent in performance from my point of view.

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Ramy Mahmoud

IT Support Specialist at SWATX

I rate the tool's deployment a nine out of ten. Its deployment takes only a few hours to complete.

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Chirosca Alecsandru

Owner and business consultant at networks srl

The initial setup is straightforward. It took me about ten to 15 minutes to install it and maybe half an hour for configuration.

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Reinhardt Jansen

Senior Systems Administrator at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees

I setup all of it. I set it up for our country, and I did it all remotely. I learned from the community how to do it. The process to install and configure is very straightforward.

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EDWIN GARZON

Defensive Security & BlueTeam at Global Research CO

We implement the solution for our clients, so we have a good sense of what is expected.

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Anders Olsson

Systems Administrator at AB Edsbyverken

It is very straightforward and much easier than the previous Clavister FW. Config is easy.

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FlorianBUIS

Infrastructure Administrator at CFA-INSTA

The installation is easy and can take approximately one day.

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reviewer126042

Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

It was very simple. You download and boot a USB stick or a CD to install it. From then on, it is managed by its own webpage. The deployment takes a few minutes.

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it_user224253

Network Engineer at TLCWEB S.R.L.

It's easy to setup the solution because there's a wizard that guides you through it, and therefore, you cannot make mistakes. Then, you can configure the different aspects to fit your needs.

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it_user700119

HTS Engineering - Heat Transfer Solutions at a construction company with 201-500 employees

The setup was straightforward.

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it_user694707

IT Director

Simple if you just want a firewall up and going to NAT your network. It can be as complex as you need it to be. Just run the install from an ISO and it's like any other out-of-the-box SMB router.

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it_user461160

Gérant chez

Setup is easy and done in a few steps.

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it_user485088

Infrastructure Manager at a engineering company with 501-1,000 employees

After istalar pfsense the initial configuration is simple, and works without problems

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it_user224256

Senior Technology Consultant Cosmocall/Microsoft at a tech services company

The initial setup is easy. This is because the pfSense setup is like a Windows installation (wizards, choose option, click next etc.) unlike some others.

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EvrardMalima

Sans emploi at a pharma/biotech company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup was easy and took about 50 minutes.

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DiegoVoltolini

IT Infrastructure Analyst at TranspoTech Equipamentos

It's easy to set up pfSense. But it generally takes two or three days, depending on the environment.

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reviewer1660638

Vice President - Engineering & Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup was straightforward. The whole process took approximately eight hours and one hour of that was in front of the computer using the keyboard.

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reviewer1485087

CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Although it's not quite pre-configured, it is ready to use, straight away. It's so easy to put it to work. We had to do some configurations, mainly related to security issues. Configuring rules for monitoring had to be done, but otherwise, it's ready to go, out of the box.

Only one person is required to deploy this solution.

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reviewer1423032

CTO, Software Architect, founder at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The implementation is not complex. It's very straightforward to initiate. A company should have no problems with the process.

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it_user700161

IT Systems Engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

For an IT person, the setup was more or less straightforward.

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reviewer1698042

Managing Director at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

The solution is easy to install for one who properly understands the nitty gritty of the firewall and network.

It is my engineers who are responsible for the installation, not I, so I cannot comment on its duration, although I know that it does not take them long.

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Manish Nalawade

Owner at it logic

It is very easy to install.

We only need one person to install and maintain this solution.

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Heriberto Pineda

Engineering Manager at UTI Tech SA de CV

The initial setup was very easy.

Before I set up, I wrote down all the levels on a paper and I drew the plan I wanted to protect. After that, I deployed it pfSense. I filtered the access to the users and to the servers. Everyone has the access that they need.

The deployment took less than an hour.

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it_user511632

Owner with 51-200 employees

Very straightforward. For a small company with few configuration options it works almost out-of-the-box. The firewall comes with basic outgoing and incoming rules, and you take it from there.

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it_user307602

Snr. VOIP Specialist at Digital Globe Services

The setup is simple, if you have some Linux and firewall administration expertise.

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it_user277146

IT Specialist at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

If you have some knowledge about router and firewall, initial setup won't be a problem for you. Ask google about it and you will find a lot of documentation, instructions and video.

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it_user224265

Responsable IT & RMQ at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

It's very straightforward, even for beginners. There is documentation and different tutorials and videos available in different languages.

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reviewer1794948

IT Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

The initial setup is easy.

The first installation took an hour to complete, but the configuration is another part. It's about the complexity of my network because I have provided services from a firm and every company has a different setup.

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Hugo Hoyos

IT Infrastructure Analyst at ADRA Peru

The initial set up is complex and took two days to deploy.

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reviewer1378743

Owner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

It's harder to set up pfSense than SonicWall. Only a couple of people in our company can do that.

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it_user219480

IT Administrator at Sharif Medical City

it's a straightforward setup.

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Eman-Taky

Senior System Administrator at KnowledgeNet

The installation was easy. I was able to install it in two hours maximum. Only one person is needed for deployment and maintenance.

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reviewer1590810

NOC Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy.

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reviewer1021278

IT analyst with 1,001-5,000 employees

The initial setup of the solution is very easy. It's straightforward. There isn't any complexity. A company shouldn't have any troubles with the setup.

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reviewer1388052

System Analyst at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The initial setup of the solution is not complex at all. It's quite straightforward. It's also not our primary firewall. We have another solution for that. This operates as our secondary firewall, and we were able to add it rather easily into our security network.

Deployment is very quick. It only took us an hour or so to set up.

Our provider handled the maintenance for us as needed. We don't handle that in house.

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it_user223011

Systems Engineer II at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It wasn't straightforward but at the same time not complex. The only issue was identifying relevant static routes to move traffic in and out our network.

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reviewer1322229

CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The setup was straightforward.

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Arturo Rony-Oncebay Casanova

System Implementer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees

The initial setup was simple and fast.

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it_user696282

Sócio at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The setup was easy. You can install it in two minutes. It takes more than five minutes to put it to work with a single internet link plus NAT.

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it_user284163

System Administrator at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's relatively simple and straightforward, with enough documentation avalable online for the average user to install and setup.

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it_user222801

Technical Program Manager at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

Straightforward, but it requires some technical expertise and tweaking.

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reviewer1475910

IT Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The initial setup is straightforward once you read the manual.

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Divyesh Jesadiya

Full Stack Developer at Infrassist Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

The solution is easy to set up.

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it_user229803

CEO & Founder at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It was very straightforward.

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it_user221874

Manager IT at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

Its installation setup & procedure is so simple that a layman could install it.

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it_user79791

Network Admin at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

The initial approach is very complex because of the multiple functions, but after a short learning curve it is able to handle the standard functions. View full review »

it_user279654

Network and Transmission Engineer at a tech services company

Simplest

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it_user225414

IT Executive cum ICT Consultant at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

It was done by external technical support.

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it_user223023

IT Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

We just had some small problems with setting up the modules. However, there was lots of documentation available online so there were no problems at all.

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reviewer868524

IT consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The initial setup of pfSense is simple.

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reviewer1356246

Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The initial setup was straightforward.

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it_user499617

Managing Director at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Initial setup was very straightforward; the interface is very self-explanatory.