There are some limitations of pfSense 1.0 that maybe don't apply to your setup 
(also just a quick shot from what comes to my mind at once):

- The ftp-helper will only work at WAN when using multiwan/loadbalancing
- loadbalancing only works for connections running through pfSense (services 
that run at the firewall directly like the squid package can't use 
loadbalancing or multiwan)
- NAT reflection only works for portranges with less than 500 ports and not for 
1:1 NATs
- not all services work well with loadbalancing. this however is NOT a pfSense 
problem but poor protocol design or poor application code at the clientside.
- you need static gateways to use the loadbalancing pool for outgoing 
loadblancing
- trafficshaping only works for 2 interfaces correctly (at least from what you 
can do with the webgui)
- if you run CARP (which is something that you should consider for an install 
of that size) each node needs a dedicated IP that can't be shared/handed over, 
however they still can be forwarded or used on the single node.
- after CARP failover all already established connections will be in the 
default queues
- IPSEC only will work with at least one static IP at one end
- Routing via IPSEC needs parallel tunnels to work
- shaping and filtering inside IPSEC tunnels doesn't work (however you can 
filter traffic incoming at the end before the traffic goes into the tunnel if 
you control both ends)
- you only can bridge wireless interfaces to another interface if the interface 
is in hostap mode
- you only can have a bridge group with 2 interfaces
- traffic shaping won't work on a bridge
- captive portal can only be enabled at one interface
- DynDNS can only be used for the original WAN interface

Several of these limitations are already fixed in the head release or seem to 
be fixable but need time to be implemented/tested. Keep in mind this is Version 
1.0 and it's feature frozen for several month already while developement to the 
head codetree continued. We absolutley don't recommend to run HEAD atm and we 
don't support it either just in case you want to ask why not run HEAD ;-)


Concerning Hardware:

- You should consider using some highend machines with a fast PCI bus as all 
traffic has to pass the bus and the CPU and you plan to run several IPSEC 
tunnels
- like Bill said, each state takes a bit of RAM. You should consider this when 
calculating your hardware

Holger

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Odette [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 4:20 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [pfSense-discussion] Known PFsense Limits?
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
>   I need to substitute our production firewall, and I'd like 
> to use PFsense 
> which I've already successfully used for home or small office 
> environments.
> 
> The solution I'm going to substitute is based on 
> Linux-iptables which requires 
> more than 1000 rules. I need more than 25 static routes, and 5 VPNs.
> 
> Furthermore, in the next future we are migrating 2 of 3 
> network branches on 
> Gbit.
> 
> I'd like to try with PFsense, but my boss (I'm sure) will 
> kill me in the event 
> I spend half a week in setting up the new PFsense and writing 
> down all the 
> rules to see that PFsense is not the right solution.
> 
> Is there a rules number limit or a session number limit 
> implemented in 
> PFsense? 
> 
> Does somebody have some expertize in similar situations?
> 
> Anybody able to supply info or suggenstions?
> 
> Tanks in advance
> 
>    Odette
> 

____________
Virus checked by G DATA AntiVirusKit

Reply via email to