Comments by "Javier Flores" (@JJFlores197) on "your home router SUCKS!! (use pfSense instead)" video.

  1. pfsense runs on a computer. That's what is acting as the router. I don't know if you can install pfsense on a router itself, but I doubt it.
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  2. I think you got it backwards. You put the ISP router in bridge mode so that your other router acts as the router. Anyways, there are some advantages to doing this, but it depends on how much time you're willing to learn and invest in this. With your own router, you can usually create custom networks and subnets and overall have more control over you networks compared to the ISP router. Whether or not its worth it really depends on you and your needs.
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  3. You can look into running virtual machines, but performance is usually less than on a real computer since your host computer (Mac Mini) is running 2 operating systems at once.
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  4. That's called a VPN, dude. You'll need to setup a VPN server on your home network. you then connect your devices outside of your network through your VPN server. All their traffic will appear to be coming from your home network.
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  5. To my knowledge, you can't get rid of the gateway. AT&T uses a proprietary authentication method which requires you to use the gateway they provide to you. You can put the gateway in IP Passthrough mode and use your own router if you want. When I had U-Verse years ago, that's what I did. They have a support page somewhere that shows you how to enable IP Passthrough, but they don't offer anymore support or guidance other than what's in the guide.
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  6. Not directly. You still need a cable modem. You would plug an ethernet cable from the modem into the WAN port of the router. In the configuration, you can assign which port is WAN and which is LAN. I have Comcast at home and that's how I have my setup.
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  7. I'm not being rude, but is kinda hard to make a video on a very specific provider that doesn't exist in all areas.
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  8.  @hntrains2  Yep. Exactly why I bought my own modem for about $80. I re-used my router that I bought about 2 years prior to that which cost me about $110.
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  9. As long as you have a decent access point, there shouldn't be any notable performance loss over wifi.
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  10. You'll need to buy a wifi access point that supports Wi-Fi 7.
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  11. Why reinvent the wheel?
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  12. You'll need to provide your on wifi access point as computers don't usually have wifi built in. There's no specific limit to the number of users you can have. 40 clients will be ok.
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  13.  @git-er-dun_LBK_  In theory yes it should work. The main issue I foresee is the network adapter. You usually need 2 adapters - One for the WAN (that connects to the modem) and the other for the LAN (connects your home network to your router). Laptops almost always only have 1 Ethernet port. You may be able to use a USB ethernet adapter, but I don't know if those are supported.
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  14. Pretty much all routers are configured through a web interface. You just type in the router's IP address into your web browser's address bar and that's it. It works on almost any device that has a web browser. Managed switches are usually programmed through a serial port. You'll need a USB to serial cable and a terminal program. Though there are some switches you can configure through a web interface, but that usually needs to be initially configured through the command line. What was the switch you bought from TP-Link?
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  15. Not directly. You need a cable modem first. You then plug an ethernet cable into the cable modem's ethernet port and the other end into the pfSense box's ethernet port. You plug another network cable from another ethernet port on the pfSense box to a network switch.
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  16.  @snixtysnixt  You're talking to a scam troll bot. Look at the user name.... You can use this in a virtual machine. You just have to play around with the Virtualbox network settings and make sure your VMs are pointed to the virtual router.
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  17. Yep
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  18. Yes of course. Most home internet connections have dynamic public IP addresses.
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  19. Probably not.
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  20. You can always reconfigure the pfsense box. Its not like once you configure it, its permanent. That wouldn't make any sense. You can reconfigure it from the console (text based) or through its web interface.
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  21.  @estu548  There are many guides on how to setup a VPN server at home. I use OpenVPN Access server. However, the free version limits you to 2 concurrent connections at once. It greatly helps if you understand networking and familiar with working on servers and command line interfaces.
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  22. Did you assign the LAN interface an IP address? On the pfsense box, you should see a screen similar to 8:20. Look at the interfaces list. The LAN interface should have an IP address. If it doesn't, you should be able to configure one by choosing option 2.
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  23. I get what you're saying, but home users wouldn't be using an enterprise level network system.
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  24. Where in the video are you asking about?
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  25. Can't you buy your own cable modem? I have Comcast and use my own modem. I run a network cable from my modem to my pfSense's "WAN" interface and another cable to my switch. Unless your ISP has restrictions on not being able to use your own modem, you should be fine.
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  26. pfSense will take the place of your router if you decide to use it. It won't necessarily have anything to do with your Windows server and pihole.
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  27. Likely not. Latency is mainly determined by your internet connection and how far away the servers you are connecting.
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  28. Not sure what you're trying to ask.
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  29. For most home use cases, that's good enough. If you insist, consider looking at a firewall solution that has IDS/IPS. Do note that a lot of this stuff isn't plug and play. You really need to have a good understanding of computer networking to set it up correctly. Its way overkill for the majority of home users. Keeping your computers and router software updated as well as having a strong wifi password is usually good enough for home users.
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  30. Most residential ISPs will sell/give/rent you a gateway device which is almost always a modem, router, and wifi in one unit. Its not common to get just a modem from your provider. You can still usually buy stand-alone cable modems (though cable modem/router combo units are more common) at most electronics stores.
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  31. You'll have to see if your ISP supports that.
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  32. I would to, but Comcast charges $15/month for their gateway rental. That's on top of the internet cost. In the 4 years I've had the service, I would have spent over $700 in rental fees.
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  33. By definitions, routers don't have wifi. Practically all consumer-level routers from the past 17 years or so have wi-fi built in, but enterprise and more advanced routers are stand-alone devices. pfsense likely has many, many more advanced networking options than your $500 router has. Whether or not it matters is up to you. The vast majority of people will likely never take advantage of even a fraction of all of the features and options pfsense has.
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  34. That's normal. If a lot of people connect to a website like google from the same IP address frequently, Google sees this as a bit suspicious. That's why you get that verification check. Nothing you can do about it other than not using the VPN.
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  35. I think you're referring to a modem. Xfinity is a cable ISP so if you want to use a 3rd party modem, you have to buy a modem that works with your service. They have a list of compatible devices based on where you live and your internet service. You can buy a standalone modem or a gateway box which includes a router and modem in one device. If you plan using an aftermarket router, buy a stand-alone modem. That way you don't have to deal with having 2 modems in a network which can cause some problems.
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  36. What do you mean by that?
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  37. Its more of the control and customization you can get by using pfsense. It gives you a lot more control than most typical home routers.
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  38.  @unrealbot3027  Yes since all the traffic still goes through the pfsense box. The wifi ap acts like a bridge in the sense that it connects wireless devices to the wired network. From the pfsense's box perspective, it doesn't know that the traffic is wifi or wired.
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  39. Its not available on any device other than a cable modem. You have a modem/router combo unit. If you want to use something like pfsense, you'll need to buy a stand-alone cable modem. You then plug an ethernet cable from the modem to your pfsense box. The other end goes into your switch. You then assign which port is WAN and which is LAN. There are no consumer-level PCI-e cable modem cards that I'm aware of.
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  40. I'm not very familiar with wifi mesh network setups. However, it seems unlikely that the router itself would reboot. What kind of router is it? Make sure its not overheating, has the latest firmware, etc.
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  41. Remove the ISO file from the VM's dvd drive. Or change the VM's boot order so that the hard disk is the 1st boot device.
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  42. 😆😆😆 this dude
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  43. Yeah its clickbaity title crap. For most people, setting this up is totally unnecessary. Its cool for people who like to tinker around with network equipment and/or want to learn. For most home internet use cases, the equipment provided by the ISP is good enough.
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  44. How is your PS5 connected to the internet? Wifi or wired?
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  45. I don't know his exact cabling setup, but I'm assuming the pfsense box is plugged into a capture device and that device is in turned plugged into the monitor. That's what allows him to record the video coming from the gateway. After you install pfsense, you don't need to directly interact with it. You use another computer to connect to the pfsense box over a web browser to configure it, as he does in the video.
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  46. You can use a single computer and install multiple network cards as needed.
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  47. You could, but the main problem you'll face is the network port. Most laptops only have 1 ethernet port so you will need to buy a USB ethernet adapter. I don't know how well those work with this type of setup.
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  48. A lot of ISP gateways have a bridge mode or similar function. This allows you to more or less disable the routing function of the gateway and just have it act as a modem. you then plug in your 3rd party router and that will act as the router. How you do this varies between ISPs and gateways. Some may not allow it, others may allow it but have hidden settings and others may give you a guide on how to do it.
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  49. What??
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  50. Nope. There is some configuration you will need to do in order for your network to work correctly.
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  51. pfSense is a router/firewall software. Pi-Hole is a DNS server that can block ads at the domain level. I don't think pi-Hole has anything to do with VPN. That would be at the router level. You can have both pfSense and Pi-hole running in tandem on your network.
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  52. See if your ISP router has an IP passthrough mode. This should allow the ISP router to pass all internet traffic to your pfsense box. You'll need to read the documentation for the router or contact your ISP for more info.
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  53. You first need to enable bridge mode. Though to my knowledge, unless you have the old DSL service, Bridge mode doesn't exist with U-verse/fiber internet from AT&T. Its IP passthrough since AT&T uses proprietary authentication stuff which means you always need the AT&T gateway. Once you enable passthrough, you can connect your pfsense box to the gateway with an ethernet cable. You then connect another ethernet cable from the pfsense box to your switch. In the configuration setup, you can assign which port is the WAN and LAN port.
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  54. You're honestly better off checking other forums or subreddits. He's from the USA so he likely wouldn't know what you can/can't do with your internet connection.
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  55. I'm not an advanced network user, but I managed to setup pfSense without much hassle a few years ago.
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  56. The VPN service/app needs to be installed on each of your devices that you want VPN access. Most typical home network switches are unmanaged meaning you cannot configure anything on them.
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  57. Of course. You just plug in the NAS to an ethernet port on your switch, and that's it. You will need to configure the NAS to setup your drives and network shares, though.
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  58. I have Comcast too and have never needed to spoof my MAC address. I just power cycled the modem after I plugged int my pfsense box and it picked up a public IP from Comcast.
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  59.  @jaycahow4667  Interesting. I guess I learned something new today.
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  60. You'll still need a router in order to have your network work. Unifi switches, are not routers.
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  61. Probably not unless you need the extra control and configuration. pfsense is not plug and play. You have to setup a fair amount of settings to make it work correctly.
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  62. Yep. Welcome to the rabbit hole. I first started getting interested in this stuff almost 5 years ago. I was an IT tech intern at a dried fruit company. I was introduced to the concept of hypervisors at work. They use ESXi and I was amazed by it. I was aware that virtual machines existed, but I didn't know that you can have dedicated servers running tons of VMs. That was amazing to me so I decided to buy my own HP workstation and installed a copy of ESXi. I've been playing around with VMs for a few years. Pretty incredible stuff.
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  63. I'm sure there are plenty of reddit posts on how to bypass it.
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  64. I'm not familiar with that device, but if you can setup bridge mode on it, it should work with your pfsense setup. You will likely need to read through the Netgear device's documentation.
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  65. Cable modem options depend on your provider. Your ISP should have a list of approved 3rd party devices. Buy a modem that works with your provider and/or service. Connect an ethernet cable from the modem's ethernet port to your pfSense box's LAN WAN port. You will then need to plug another ethernet cable from the pfsense box to the LAN port which will plug into a network switch. You will need to define those ports through pfsense. There are many, many videos and guides on how to set this up.
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  66. Depends. Are you not getting enough kills due to skill issue or internet issue ;)
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  67. For most home use cases, yes it is way overkill and likely not really worth it. However, even if you are somewhat familir with networking and want to play around with this stuff at home, it isn't that hard to do since you already have general networking knoweledge. I setup my little opnsense box about a year ago and have rarely had problems with the configuration. Most of the time I don't even remember that I have it.
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  68. Neither. This would act as a router/firewall. By itself, it cannot provide Wi-Fi nor will it connect directly to a fiber connection.
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  69. If you want to connect the fiber cable directly to your pfsense router, you'll need an SFP module and card. Most typical computers do not have this so you'll have to buy it separately. You'll need to make sure your ISP allows you to use your own router.
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