Wordpress behind a pfSense firewall

Networking & Firewalls
1

I have been trying unsuccessfully for a while now to setup a Wordpress server behind a pfSense firewall with the intend of being able to browse it from a global address.

I have a regular DHCP type home setup, but I have replaced the default router with a pfSense router (which now has a public address on its WAN port).

My Wordpress site works inside my own network on the 192.168.1.x side.

My Wordpress is based on Apache2 webserver and during debug I have gotten the "default apache2 home page to be displayed publicly, but wordpress fails in rendering and only displays some items and extremely slowly.

I read in posts around the internet conflicting information, some blaming pfSense configuration and some the Apache2 configuration. None of the ideas have improved my situation.

I was hoping that you would create a video of showing how to get a Wordpress website live from inside a home network (or small business)

Regards,
/TA

2

It should work with a simple port forwarding rule. On pfsense just open up ports 80/443 to allow traffic from the WAN to pass through to the web server on your private network. Make sure you have your server running Wordpress securely setup as there are a lo of bots out there that will take it over very quicly if there is an exposed flaw.

3

Agree, and a simple one page webpage does render perfectly thru the firewall. However the more complex Wordpress based websites does not render correctly.

4

If a simple page shows correctly then you have an Apache problem vs pfsense I would think.

Does it work when you go to the local address for Wordpress?

5

Yes, the Wordpress server is working great from inside using local addresses. I have followed many, how to guides, but they all lead to the same problem. Works great inside, but does not work thru the firewall.

1 Like
6

You probably have referenced in your Wordpress design that are pointing to local resources. You can use the Chrome browser dev tools to see what resources are not loading

7

Sounds like a DNS issue. Do you have any hostfile entries on your test system or the web server?