Home network question

Networking & Firewalls
1

I have my first home network and dont know if what i want is going to happen. I have my modem going to pfsense box, Ok here is my question can i use the pfsense to control everything to and fro from internet? I have the omada set up controller router switches and ap. It goes from modem to pf to router in home lab. I want to use unbound and a ad blocker in pf

I hope that makes sense I’m an old retiree just learning this networking very interesting i must say

2

You are correct. pfsense can control everything. (pfsense can be your router)

So in my setup its:

“Modem” → pfsense → switches → APs (for wifi), PCs, etc

The ad-blocking is done by pfsense. (Pfblocker-ng).

3

pfSense makes an excellent router and firewall and, yes, it can ad-block too, but I find the interface a little cumbersome. Personally, I use AdGuard (https://adguard.com/) for ad-blocking, you can just ‘enable’ various ad-blocking lists rather than importing rules … and it has a pretty interface! PiHole is another option.

My setup is:
Modem > Proxmox VE > Switch > AP
Running on Proxmox VE:
-pfSense VM
-OMV NAS VM
-AdGuard VM

4

It sounds like you have some TP-Link Omada equipment? I have a similar setup, pfSense as my router, then an Omada managed switch, Omada Wi-Fi access point, and the Omada software controller running as a virtual machine on a small PC appliance. It all works well together. It does require some duplication of configuration info as both pfSense and the Omada controller need to be aware of VLANs, sub-net address ranges, etc. And Omada controller needs to know my Wi-Fi SSID to VLAN mappings so it can configure the Wi-Fi access point.

I’m new to a lot of this stuff also but would be happy to try to walk you through any configuration issues.

5

Just replace your omada router with pfsense.
As @HPnerdboy mentioned, some duplicated configuration is needed, but is is not complicated.

I am not sure about pfsense because I use opnSense, in unbound configuration you can forward all DNS queries to nextDNS where you can manage all blocks and dont forget to increase cache in unbound.

Or you can run pi-hole in docker on home server where you can also run omada controller in docker.

6

Yes I have the Omada complete set up I have the 605 router the controller and two poe switches. But i want pfsense right after modem then to the Omada set up. I prefer pfsense for my firewall not Omada