Firewall appliances

Soekris 5501

Further reading:

• http://www.itnotes.eu/?p=1545 (Soekris and terminal app)
• http://www.itnotes.eu/?p=1550 (pfSense)
• http://skear.hubpages.com/hub/Introduction-to-pfSense-An-Open-Source-Firewall-and-Router-Platform

After running pFsense since 3 years in a productive environment, I bought my ownSoekris 5501-60 hardware. A robust, fast and easy to maintain appliance.

For connecting via terminal I am using an USB-to-serial converter ...

> lsusb
0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC

... and connect via cutecom (9600 baud) to the serial port of the firewall. Tip: cutecom is compatible to minicom, it reads the settings in /etc/minicom if this was installed and used before.

Download pfsense image

the AMD Geode processor needs an i386 nanobsd image. You should use "Searial" due to the fact, the Soekris has no VGA port! I use an 2GB compact flash card. If you have another size, use the appropriate image.

Download at:

• https://www.pfsense.org/download/mirror.php?section=downloads

• 

Then install the image to your CF disk:

gunzip -c pfSense-2.2.2-RELEASE-2g-i386-nanobsd.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=16k