Apparently it’s been out since June and I just never realized, but there’s a new pfsense out.
https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-2.7.0-and-23.05
Not exactly timely, but I bet I’m not the only one who easily forgets about that particular thing. Most of my stuff is set to autoupdate so I tend to forget.
The upgrade downloaded a large number of packages, I think about 160, during which network connectivity continued to function. After downloading, my router PC reset, and that first boot after the upgrade took quite a few minutes. I ended up running the 90 second timer out after which it reset to 20 seconds a number of times. I was just about to start digging for an HDMI cable to see what when I heard the router beep and my internet came back. Perfect upgrade, didn’t need to fix anything afterwards.
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I got it all configured before I figured out the benefits and haven’t bothered to migrate since both of them basically do the job for me.
Really, the same reason I didn’t upgrade for 3 months, it’s a piece of invisible infrastructure unless something is wrong. I only noticed the upgrade because I was going in to add another static dhcp binding for a new server.
I totally get it. I sat on making switch for almost two years. Then one day I backed up my pfsense config. Installed opnsense ( on a new router ). Restored and was good to go. I did have to switch to unbound DNS though. I’m not sure how to describe it, but the GUI is better in my opinion.
Since I was already upgrading my hardware it just made sense. ;)
I’ve used opnsense in other applications since where I’ve wanted a good firewall that runs on x86 hardware.
I get the gist of what Opnsense is from the name, but what are some of the practical benefits for a small home labber to use it over PFsense?
The UI is way, way better. I also haven’t had opnsense corrupt itself, but PFsense did that to me twice in the five or so years I used it.
Other than that there aren’t a lot of functional differences. There was some drama years ago with the guy who runs PFsense and I guess he’s kind of a giant asshole, that’s what led to the fork, but I don’t remember the details.
For anything not set to auto-upgrade, change detection has been a godsend to me. Even started using it at work to make sure there’s nothing missing an important security update. Have it push a message to Slack, Discord, Telegram, etc…
